In the moments leading up to the restart with 27 laps to go, crew chief Richard Boswell threw the weight of the world on Chase Briscoe’s shoulders.
In summation, Boswell keyed up his radio and told Briscoe that he had the support of over 300 employees, most of whom will have lost their jobs at the end of the season when Stewart-Haas Racing closes and that the driver had one last chance to put them into Victory Lane and the playoffs.
Boswell had transferred the weight of an entire organization onto the 29-year-old from Mitchell, Indiana and he responded like the guy Joe Gibbs hired to take over one of the most coveted rides in the industry.
“When Richard told me that, I’m like emotional,” Briscoe said. “Everybody knows that. I started tearing up in the car thinking about how much was riding on my shoulders at that point.”
But Boswell knew what he was doing.
“I think Chase knows there is a lot of weight,” Boswell said. “Chase and I had a conversation this week about — before Daytona, thinking that Daytona was maybe our best opportunity. Just kind of the way our season has gone, our speedway stuff, Chase reassured me Saturday night after Daytona that if we brought him our best, he was going to bring his best.
“I told our guys in the shop, like we do every week, if we give him what he needs, I can assure you he can win this race.
“I think when you back him in a corner like that, we’ve seen it in the past with his career, kind of the path he’s been on, when you back him in a corner, he’s dangerous. I love seeing this Chase Briscoe. I cannot wait to race with this Chase Briscoe for the next 10 weeks.”
Boswell is referring to the guy he worked with in 2020, while in the Xfinity Series, who said he needed to win eight races to graduate to the Cup Series because he didn’t have anything to pay for a ride beyond his own merit.
Briscoe and Boswell won nine races that season.
“I love that stuff,” Briscoe said. “Like, I love the Game 7, heavy-pressure moment. For whatever reason, I feel like I do a lot better under those situations than not having a lot of pressure.”
Boswell, under that caution also said something to the effect of ‘we need Risky Brisky here,’ a reference to his father, Sprint Car ace Kevin Briscoe. Risky Brisky Jr. then proceeded to throw a three-wide slider that had his dad stoked from atop the pit box.
“It made me smile,” the elder Briscoe said. “That was definitely a Risky Brisky.”
His son was driving with a chip on his shoulder too, because he felt just as determined prior to Daytona last week and responded with what he called his career worst superspeedway performance.
“I was embarrassed, so embarrassed,” Briscoe said. “I texted Richard literally before we got on the plane. I said, I don’t ever want to talk about this race again. We’re not going to talk about it this week. I promise you I’ll make it up to you next week.
“Man, I knew it was going to be one of those do or die moments. We talked about it before the race today, this is the last bullet in the chamber. We knew this was going to be a really good opportunity for us based on how we raced in the spring. If we could get our car a little bit better, if we executed all night long, I knew we would be in the mix. We executed. And we were in the mix at the end.”
Facing a do or die, the No. 14 team is not dead, not until after Phoenix anyway.
And again, even more remarkable is that they won this race having lost their Ford Performance Tier 1 affiliation before the season even began, a reflection of the sale rumors that would become reality several months later.
Everyone who was not under contract was free to leave immediately when the closure was confirmed on May 28. Those who were under contract had to band together under challenging circumstances.
That dynamic was articulated after the race by team vice president of competition, Greg Zipadelli.
“It’s no secret to anybody what we’re going through, what’s happening” Zipadelli said, fighting back tears a little bit. “How depressing. A lot of men and women, including myself, spent a lot of years here and tried to build something special.
“To get a win, make the playoffs, last chance and that kid did a heck of a job, Richard did a great job, everyone. I don’t know that I have the words to explain how big this is for our company, and I’m talking about the men and women who show up everyday and do what they need to do, because there is no company at the end of the year.
“It’s just sad. It’s a sad thing that hit a lot of people.”
Boswell echoed that sentiment too, that this just sucks.
“I think for those of us that have been there for quite some time, it’s sad, right,” Boswell said. “It sucks. This is family. Every employee there I would have at Christmas dinner.
“So that part of it is sad. I think the struggle and the difficulty that’s come with it has been we have a job to do, and that hasn’t changed. Whether it’s 60 hours a week or not, it’s turned into 70. I’ve told people, I can’t tell you how many guys I have in my office every week wondering what do I think, ‘where should I go’ or ‘I’m worried about my future.’
“You have to have those conversations just from an empathy standpoint. You have to take those guys in and let them know that you care. That’s just added more work and more hours. I would say that’s been the biggest difference, is just trying to be mindful of what everybody is going through, but also know we have a job to do, try to do our best to bring the best cars we can every week.”
And Boswell just wanted to remind Briscoe, not because he had forgotten but for the motivation, that those 300-plus people were with him in that moment. They were with him in spirit and they were with him in the form of every fingerprint that rouched the No. 14 this week.
Recognizing that, Briscoe and Boswell were greeted in Victory Lane by a wide assortment of NASCAR industry personnel. All the other SHR crew chiefs stopped by to congratulate their co-workers. Cliff Daniels, Hendrick Motorsports’ No. 5 crew chief stopped by to give Boswell a big bear hug, and Penske’s Austin Cindric did the same for his longtime Ford development teammate.
Now, Briscoe and Boswell, with 300-plus employees at their back, are preparing to take that same weight to Atlanta, Watkins Glen and Bristol.
Briscoe doesn’t see the impending closure as a detriment either, because after all, here they are in Victory Lane.
“We’ve been shutting down since May, and they haven’t shut us off yet,” Briscoe said. “Yeah, I think we’ll be totally fine. Obviously it’s going to be an uphill battle, but we feel confident about it.”
Boswell said they are unlike any other team in the Round of 16 because they will have the full might of an entire company behind them.
“I’ll be honest, like I’ve got four teams helping me for these next three weeks,” Boswell said. “That’s what I’m looking forward to. I’m looking forward to going to battle with all four teams. I know that we have a group of guys that support this team and are going to do everything that they can.”
And that excites the driver too.
“The way I look at it is we got nothing to lose, right,” Briscoe said. “If you can win at Darlington, you can win anywhere on the schedule. This is probably the toughest place to win. It takes the whole package. Your picker has to be on it, car has to be good. It takes everything.
“From that standpoint, I feel like it’s totally fine, yeah.”