After a crash at Atlanta in the NASCAR Cup Series playoff opener dropped Chase Briscoe, already facing long odds to advance to the second round, to 20 point below the cutline, he needed a big day to have any shot in the first-round finale at Bristol.
How about a sixth-place finish and scoring more points than literally anyone else in the field?
“Yeah, the shop’s been super energetic, truthfully, since the Darlington win, obviously, but even today,” Briscoe said. “It kind of had that same atmosphere and vibe I would say of after we won Darlington. We knew that was a huge day. That was everything we needed to do and even though we didn’t win the race, it honestly almost felt like we won the race.”
Briscoe remarkably leaped from 20 points below to six points above the cutline — aided by bad days for several other would-be contenders.
“To score a ton of stage points and to finish up front, it was a really big day for us as a race team,” Briscoe said. “Our confidence level is really, really high and even (amongst) the non-14 guys – like all of Stewart-Haas – when I walk through the shop everybody is like, ‘Hey, awesome job this past weekend. Keep it up.’ So, it’s been a really good atmosphere the last couple of weeks and hopefully we can just keep that going.”
And keeping it going is going to be important because Denny Hamlin below him has won the last two races at Thunder Valley. Brad Keselowski has three career wins at Bristol. Martin Truex Jr. is also a former champion who overcame a deficit in this race last year to advance.
It’s also a high speed chaotic race track in line with the first two races of the first round.
“Obviously, you can’t wreck yourself, but you’ve got to be aggressive,” Briscoe said. “It’s going to take a big day for us. I think the big thing for us is qualifying good. I think that’s going to be a huge key. That’s something that we’ve been really, really good at Bristol is qualifying, so I feel good about it.
“Bristol is a place that I would say as a company is probably one of our top five tracks, and then just me personally I feel like it’s one of my better racetracks as well, so I feel really, really good about going into Bristol. Even if we were below the cut line, I would still feel good about it, but we’re going to need a big day.
“The guys that we’re going to be racing – Truex, Denny Hamlin, Ty Gibbs – it’s kind of all the guys that are the typical players that are in the mix to win at Bristol, so it’s going to take a big day for us, but I’m confident that we can go there and have a good night. If we just do everything that we can do and execute from start to finish, at the end of the day that’s all we can control. We can’t control what the other guys do, but if we put in what we feel like is the best race possible for our race team, I’m confident that it will be enough.”
Remarkably, this is uncharted territory for the Stewart-Haas No. 14 team this season, having spent most of the year below the playoff cutline and only making the round of 16 with a figurative buzzer beater in winning the Southern 500 at Darlington.
At the same time, Briscoe was in the 2022 playoffs and entered both Bristol and the second-round cutoff race at the Charlotte Roval below the cutline and ended both races above it.
“I think just understanding that in that race anything can happen,” Briscoe said. “Going into that 2022 race, I don’t remember, but I think we were like 17 or 21 points out going into the race and, honestly, my mentality is the exact same as it was that night, just score as many stage points possible and just try to get the best finish.
“The points are going to be what they’re going to be as far as what the other guys do, but if we can just go and score as many points as we possibly can, it puts the pressure on everybody else. I feel like, for us, we need to try to focus on being 11th or better because I can definitely see somebody else winning and moving that cut line down one spot, so we just have to go and put up as many points as possible.
“It sounds simple, but I think for me it doesn’t really change. It is nice that I had that experience of being in that playoff cut off situation, not even at Bristol in 2022, but even the Roval. I’ve been in this situation multiple times where it’s come down to one or two points and you just have to perform. We’ve kind of seen, and I feel like my entire career when I’m typically in that position is when I feel like I run my best, so I’m really excited for this weekend and just the pressure that comes along with it.”
