SONOMA, Calif. – Chase Briscoe is back behind the wheel of the Ford Performance Racing School-branded No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) Mustang for this Sunday’s Save Mark 350k at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway.
Ford Performance Racing School is the only school to wear the Ford oval, and Ford is the only full-line vehicle manufacturer to offer product-focused experiential driving programs exclusively to the owners of its complete line of performance vehicles, from cars to trucks to SUVs.
“Last year was a tough year at Sonoma. It is a super technical track, and the only experience I had there was in the ARCA West race the day before, so I didn’t have a whole lot to use to prepare,” said Briscoe. “I think I’ve become more confident as a driver. Last year, I was trying really hard to learn how to race in the Cup Series while not messing up other drivers and I realized I had to get over that. I learned a lot more by getting up there and racing these guys to see what I could figure out from how they drive certain tracks. This season has been good so far. We got off a little after the Phoenix win, and COTA didn’t really go the way we wanted, but I’m excited to get to another road course and see how it goes. This car is much better on-road courses than what we’ve had in the past and I think this is a chance for us to get another really good finish and maybe another win to secure our spot in the playoffs a little more than it is now.”
Briscoe has one start at the 1.99-mile, 10-turn Sonoma road course. He started 25th and finished 17th last season. In eight Cup Series starts on road courses, Briscoe has three top-10 finishes and was just shy of earning his career first Cup Series victory on the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway last summer.
“It seems like dirt racers have done pretty well at Sonoma in the past,” said Briscoe. “I haven’t talked to Tony (Stewart) specifically about Sonoma, but I’ll be with him later this week and might have to pick his brain a little on what we can do. I think I understand the car a little better this time around, and knowing the track helps. So, I kind of know what I need to focus on and maybe he can help out with that.”
The 27-year-old racer from Mitchell, Indiana, picked up two Xfinity Series wins on road courses – his first career Xfinity Series victory was in the series’ inaugural race on the Charlotte Roval in 2018. He also fulfilled his childhood dream of kissing the historic Yard of Bricks when he scored his fifth win of the 2020 season on the Indianapolis road course.
Briscoe finished among the top-10 in all but three of the 10 road-course races in which he competed in the Xfinity Series. And in his lone NASCAR Camping World Truck Series start on a road course – 2017 at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park in Bowmanville, Ontario – Briscoe finished seventh in a Ford F-150.
Briscoe is 14th in the driver championship with 15 of 36 races complete. He is 145 points out of first and currently holds a spot in the 16-driver playoff field by virtue of his March 13 win at Phoenix Raceway.
