There isn’t a lot for Chase Briscoe to say about the penalty he was issued this week after the Daytona 500 but he did address what he could during a Friday morning appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
He and Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 team has been issued a 100 point and 10 playoff point penalty, in addition to a $100,000 fine and a four-race suspension to crew chief James Small. The allegation is a modified rear spoiler base, which is a spec part on the seventh-generation NASCAR Cup Series platform.
This is under appeal and Briscoe said he expected Small to attend the race this week at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
“I found out about the penalty probably 15 minutes before the penalty got announced,” Briscoe said. “That’s typically how NASCAR does it. You get a phone call from Brad Moran. He lets you know and they normally announce it within 30 minutes.”
Again, pending the appeal, how does Briscoe intend to race now that he is facing a potentially massive points setback? Plainly said, Brisco e has to win twice just to even break even on playoff points and is also roughly two and a half races down from breaking even on championship points.
“I would say this year my approach is way different in general,” Briscoe said. “We should be able to go to the race track and contend for wins on a lot more consistent basis. So, you know, my whole approach going into this year was trying to win multiple races and that doesn’t change. The points situation obviously is unfortunate, but I mean, we still just need to go win races at the end of the day.
“That’s what we’re here to do is try to win races and you know, potentially try to win a championship, too. To have a chance to win a championship you need to be winning races, anyway. So, yeah, it doesn’t change the approach at all. I don’t even think from a strategy standpoint or anything, it changes anything. You just go there and try to win the race and you know, hopefully, our cars are good enough to do that.”
