ATLANTA, GA. – Chase Briscoe got his 2024 season off to a solid start by finishing 10th in the season-opening Daytona 500, held Monday after persistent rain postponed The Great American Race to the President’s Day holiday. It was Briscoe’s 22nd career top-10 finish and his second top-10 in seven career Cup Series starts at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway.
Atlanta Motor Speedway has been around since 1960, but the Atlanta track Briscoe and his NASCAR Cup Series brethren will compete this Sunday, which is only two years old. The 1.54-mile oval was reconfigured after the final race of the 2021 season. The banking was increased from 24 to 28 degrees, the track was narrowed from 55 feet wide to 40 feet wide, and it was all covered in fresh asphalt.
The goal of the reconstruction was to recreate the kind of pack-style racing seen at the behemoth, 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway and the even bigger 2.66-mile Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. Drivers competed on the new layout for the first time in March 2022 and the Ambetter Health 400 will be the fifth Cup Series race on the revamped track.
The Ambetter Health 400 will start Briscoe’s seventh NASCAR Cup Series at Atlanta. His first two starts came on the old configuration, where his best finish was 15th, earned in July 2021. Despite the new layout in 2022, Briscoe equaled that finish in the debut of “new Atlanta” in March, where he started from the pole and led five laps. Fifteenth remains his best career Cup Series result at Atlanta.
Racing at Atlanta is similar to the Daytona experience but yet different.
“It’s similar but very different in how fast things happen,” said Brisco. “The mental side of Atlanta is, by far, the hardest thing we do all year long. It’s a mile shorter, so while it’s very, very easy to run wide open the whole time when you go to Daytona or Talladega, at Atlanta, your car is struggling even to get close to that. There’s a lot more to the team side of things at Atlanta as far as getting the balance of the car right, and it’s just a challenge for us mentally with how fast things happen and how quickly you have to process things.”
Outside of the NASCAR Cup Series, Briscoe has four other Atlanta starts. He ran three NASCAR Xfinity Series races at the track, each on the old layout, and never finished outside the top 15. His best result was ninth in June 2020. He made a lone NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series start in Atlanta in March 2017 and finished 25th.
Racing at Atlanta will be different.
“I feel it’s an animal all its own; it’s so different,’ added Briscoe. “Maybe you can take the slightest bit from Daytona, but it’s hard to say what you’ve got. You can only take out of Daytona how the new Ford body pushes. It gets pushed, but even that will be slightly different at Atlanta with just how the runs develop. It’s hard to say if you’re good at Daytona, then you’ll be good at Atlanta, or if you’re bad at Daytona, you’re going to be bad at Atlanta because they are so very different.”
Racing at Atlanta is mentally draining, added Briscoe.
“I think it’s the most mentally draining racetrack on the schedule. Daytona and Talladega have always been mentally draining, but you go to Atlanta and things happen four times the speed because you lose a mile with that racetrack. It’s an interesting track because it races like a superspeedway but is still an intermediate. The corners didn’t change. The radius of the corners, all of that, is still the same as we’ve always had, so it’s not like a Daytona or a Talladega where your car goes around there wide-open super easily. You’re manhandling the car at all times, so Atlanta is a very challenging racetrack and, by far, the most mentally draining with just how much your brain is trying to process and listen to your spotter. Applying what your spotter says is hard because things happen so fast there. It’s a tough one, for sure.”
HighPoint.com, a leading provider of technology infrastructure solutions, is riding along with Briscoe this weekend in Atlanta. HighPoint has been a partner of Briscoe and Stewart-Haas Racing since 2020, when the company supported Briscoe’s NASCAR Xfinity Series campaign, a collaboration that netted a season-best nine victories and earned Briscoe a promotion to the NASCAR Cup Series. HighPoint has climbed the NASCAR ladder with Briscoe and has helped Stewart-Haas maximize its IT investments.
“Even though we race stock cars, there’s nothing stock about what we do,” said Briscoe. “The science of our cars is impressive, but the technology that goes into building our Ford Mustangs and making them perform is even more advanced. Our IT needs are complex, and we demand much from our technology daily, whether at the shop or the track. HighPoint provides efficiency and security. They’re more than just a sponsor – HighPoint is a partner that helps us perform.”
As an IT Solutions Integrator focused on all things that connect, HighPoint helps its customers select and supply network infrastructure, mobility, collaboration, data center, security solutions, and the risk-mitigated implementation and management of their technology. The company, founded in 1996, is a minority-owned business headquartered in Sparta, New Jersey. HighPoint serves markets in its nearby tri-state region (New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware) and the southeastern United States via its presence in Charlotte, North Carolina, and globally, with offices in Amsterdam and London. To learn more about HighPoint’s solutions, please visit HighPoint.com.
There are two new faces at Stewart-Haas: Josh Berry and Noah Gragson.
“I feel like our teams have done better working together,” added Briscoe. “In the past, it was kind of four different teams that worked under one roof, whereas now it’s four teams working toward the same goal for one organization. All of that has been different and a good change, something that we’ve needed to do, especially in the landscape of the NextGen car. I’m excited to see how it finally goes now that we’ve started racing, but it’s been a different dynamic than what I’ve had the last three years.”
Briscoe is now the most tenured driver at Stewart-Haas.
“We’ve got four guys who, truthfully, are extremely hungry,” added Briscoe. “We have only one Cup win combined, so we all have much to prove. We all know what we’re capable of. We’ve all grown up as complete opposites, but we’ve all have grown up the same way by just grinding throughout our career. It’s just different now with not having Kevin (Harvick) and Aric (Almirola) there with how much more I’m going to have to speak up and stand up for things I believe in, so all of that will be interesting and it will be something I learn as I go along, but it’s a different dynamic.”
It feels like a new start for Stewart-Haas racing.
“I think the whole organization has hit the reset button,” added Briscoe. “Tony said it in the SiriusXM interview the other week – there’s no need to look back when we’re at the bottom. We’re all motivated. Every guy and girl in the shop knows that our job is on the line if we don’t figure it out. He’s already come out publicly and said he’s willing to make changes, so I think that’s good. I think we need that kick in the butt as an organization to have it publicly said, something that I think we all kind of knew was out there, but it’s never been said, so I think this year is a little bit of a clean slate. I will say that, just going to the shop, there’s a whole different feel. I went there last year; it was doom and gloomy every time, and now everybody is excited. Everybody has been ready to go and it gives me the vibe we had in 2020. Everybody is excited to go to work. It’s something we haven’t had in a long time there, so I’m excited to see how the season finally stacks up.”
