RICHMOND, VA. – The most extended season in professional sports is off for summer break. The NASCAR Cup Series, which began its 38-race season on February 3 with the Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum in Los Angeles and ended November 10 at Phoenix Raceway, gets a two-week reprieve as broadcast partner NBC covers the Summer Olympics in Paris.
Off-weekends are rare in NASCAR, and back-to-back off-weekends are even rarer. Drivers and crew members are used for vacations during the winter when the sport is silent. Still, this break allows those in the industry to enjoy a warm-weather vacation without needing a passport and a flight toward the equator.
“It’s nice to get a break,” said Chase Briscoe. “It’s weird to get two off weekends in a row. I’ll have time to get caught up on all the honey-do list stuff that I normally don’t have time to do, and it’ll be nice to be at home without responsibilities for a week or two and to be able to just hang out. I don’t think there’s ever been a time where I’m home three days straight throughout the season, but those off weeks I’ll be home for five, six, seven, eight days in a row. So it’ll be nice to just be home and get to be a dad and a husband for a couple of days and kind of live a normal life, to a certain extent, and just wake up and not have to leave. It’s always a nice break and a way to recharge your batteries in the middle of the season.”
With 23 straight races in the books, the break is necessary to recuperate and prepare for another 14-race stretch before the Cup Series’ 76th season ends.
“I’m all about taking a little bit of a break and I think it’d be a cool thing, too, if it was actually a full, total shutdown where you couldn’t do anything,” added Briscoe. “People in other sports don’t realize how long our season is. It’s really from the first weekend of February to the first weekend in November and a lot of times you only get one weekend off. And even in the offseason, you’re kind of working more than you are in the season. It would definitely be nice to have a summer break.”
When teams return from summer break, only four regular-season races remain before the 16-driver NASCAR Playoffs begin September 8 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Those who have won a race in the regular season earn a playoff berth, with the remaining spots filled based on a driver’s point standing. There have been 12 race winners thus far in 2024, leaving just four playoff spots open for a driver to get in on points.
Martin Truex Jr. is in the best shape of the winless drivers, with a 108-point margin over the top-16 cutoff. The following best is Ty Gibbs, with a 42-point buffer. Chris Buescher and Ross Chastain hold down the last two playoff spots, albeit tenuously, with Buescher just 17 points ahead of the top-16 cutoff while Chastain is just seven points to the good. The closest driver outside the top 16 is Bubba Wallace, who could easily usurp Chastain in a single race. Chase Briscoe is the next-closest challenger to crack the top 16, but at 83 points back, he needs all four races to secure as many points as possible. A victory, however, would punch Briscoe’s playoff ticket and squeeze a non-winning driver outside the playoff bubble.
The August 11 Cook Out 400 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway will mark Briscoe’s eighth career NASCAR Cup Series start at the track. He has three finishes of 12th or better, including a pair of 11th-place drives, the latest last July. Briscoe finished 18th in the Cup Series’ most recent visit to Richmond on March 31.
“I definitely think it’s gotten more cut-throat as the year goes on,” said Briscoe. “Everybody’s stuff gets better, everybody’s tighter at the beginning of the year, then everybody’s a little more spread out and what not. As we get to the tail end of the season, it’s just going to get harder and harder to win just because more and more people are really good. Our stuff definitely has changed a lot since we first raced at Richmond this year, but so has everybody else’s. We’ll just have to try to improve on what we had there the last time.”
In five career NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at Richmond between 2018 and 2020, Briscoe finished outside the top 16 only once, with three results of 11th or better. His best run came in September 2019 when he started fifth and finished fifth in his No. 98 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas.
“Richmond’s a little bit unique just because the tire wear is so significant compared to all those other racetracks that are similar to it in size and banking,” added Briscoe. “It’s hard to say if you really can take a whole lot from any other racetracks just because Richmond is kind of its own unique beast because of its abrasive surface and the tire wear that it has.”
“At that place, the grip level definitely changes a lot just based on the temperature,” he added. “It’s probably one of the more temperature-sensitive racetracks. It’s slick even when it’s 50 degrees outside, and it’s really slick when it’s 85-plus outside. For me, I enjoy it when it’s hotter and slicker there because I feel like you have more options and your car’s driving worse, and I just enjoy that more. Hopefully, when we go there, it’s hot and slick, and we can move all over the racetrack and have a lot of fun with it. I definitely feel like the tracks I run better at are typically the slicker and worn-out ones. Richmond’s one of those tracks where, when it’s cold outside, you’re married to the bottom of the racetrack, whereas when it’s hot, you can kind of move around and run up by the wall and do a lot more stuff with your racecar. I definitely enjoy it more when it’s hot and slick there.”
Drivers and crew chiefs will have options for choosing what kind of tire they want to bolt onto their racecar at Richmond. Goodyear is bringing a “prime” tire, which is a slick racing tire, and an “option” tire that is also a slick but with a softer, faster-wearing compound. The lettering on the prime tires will be yellow, and the option tires will be red. Theoretically, the prime tire will last longer but provide less grip, compromising speed. The option tire will provide maximum grip at the beginning of a run, allowing drivers to speed significantly more, but their high-degradation rate means that speed will be short-lived. These tire combinations were initially trialed during the NASCAR All-Star Race weekend, May 18-19, at North Wilkesboro (N.C.) Speedway. Richmond marks the debut of the option tire in a regular-season, points-paying race. Here’s how it will work:
● Teams will get two sets of each tire for practice.
● A set of prime tires must be used during qualifying on Saturday. That set will then be transferred to Sunday’s race allotment.
● Teams get eight sticker tires for the race – six prime sets and two option sets.
● For the race, NASCAR will not mandate when teams use their respective sets. However, all four tires must match at all times.
● There will be a 45-minute practice session on Saturday for all cars leading into NASCAR Cup Series qualifying.
Adorning Briscoe’s No. 14 Ford Mustang Dark Horse at Richmond is Rinnai, a manufacturer of the No. 1 selling brand of tankless gas water heaters in North America. Rinnai is the official tankless water heater of Stewart-Haas Racing. This designation highlights Rinnai’s brand promise of “Creating a healthier way of living®,” a mantra at the forefront of all the company’s efforts. By continuing to offer quality products and services to homeowners and organizations, Rinnai is aiding in providing businesses and homes with energy-efficient hot water options for cleaner and healthier living.
