There is no polite way of putting this.
Since making the feature for the Chili Bowl Midget Nationals in 2017, Chase Briscoe has come back every year and suffered the worst series of disappointing gut punches imaginable.
There was a three year stretch where he missed the main event by just one spot. There have been other B-main appearances too that either ended with a crash or just not making the cut. Even the year he made the feature, Briscoe ended up on his lid seven laps into the race and finished 22nd.
But yet, here he is again, for effort number 10.
“That’s actually what keeps me coming back,” Briscoe told Sportsnaut. “I want to get past that. But really, this is the reset button race for me. It gets me back in the racing mindset with the Clash just three weeks away.
“It gets me back in the racing mood after the off-season. It recharges my batteries and gets me back wanting to get after it. But really, I grew up racing with a lot of these guys, and the guys on this team, guys I’ve known since I was 11 or 12.
“The NASCAR season can be stressful and tough but this is just all fun, even when it challenges you. That’s why I keep coming back.”
Briscoe also comes back to Chili Bowl this year with a bit of an experimental package. For one, he is running the Ford engine built by Tim Engler and Engler Performance — the same one developed by Thomas Meseraull over the past 15 months.
“We have a little bit different package than what we brought last year, new engine package from almost everyone here but TMez and Joe B. Miller,” Briscoe said. “That’s been a lot to wrap my head around because the weight is different and the quirks of how it drives. Unless every other year, I didn’t test before coming here, so it’s been different. It has me scratching my head a little bit.”
But it’s still a good piece and one that Briscoe says he feels has a lot of potential.
“We should make the feature,” he said. “Like, that’s a realistic goal if I can do what I need to do behind the wheel. I always feel like I’m a step behind the guys who do this every week but I still feel like I can get after this week if I catch a couple of breaks and execute.
“If we’re not in the show, I feel like it would be another disappointment.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.