Chase Briscoe knows what is at stake in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup race at the Charlotte Roval. A win would guarantee his advancement into the Round of 8, which begins next week in Las Vegas. However, Briscoe’s biggest concerns center on just the two drivers closest to him in the standings.
Advertisement
Heading into Charlotte, Briscoe is 21 points above the cutline, in seventh place. Joey Logano is right behind in eighth place, 13 points above the cutline. And below them, it is a tight bunch of at least three drivers within striking distance.
Below the cutline are Ross Chastain (minus-13), Bubba Wallace (-26), teammate Tyler Reddick (-29), and Austin Cindric, who is at -48. They are all in a must-win situation.
But the way Briscoe looks at it — not from an air of overconfidence but more of realistic possibilities — he feels that all he has to do is finish ahead of Logano and Chastain to ensure that he’ll move on to the Round of 8.
“I think this weekend, we’re obviously really just racing the 22 [Logano] and the 1 [Chastain],” the Joe Gibbs Racing driver said in media availability this week. “If we can just go and outrun them in both stages and the race, then we’ll move on no matter what.”
The Roval is not one of Briscoe’s best tracks
Briscoe has an average finish of 23.8 with a best of ninth in four Cup Series starts on the 2.28-mile Roval road course.
He won the opening race of the 10-race playoffs at Darlington last month, and followed that up with a runner-up finish the following week at Gateway and ninth in the Round of 16 finale at Bristol.
Thus far in the Round of 12, he’s finished 10th at New Hampshire and fourth last Sunday at Kansas. Yet, Briscoe is staring potential elimination in the face.
If Briscoe gets caught up in someone else’s wreck at the Roval, that could spell the difference between him advancing or seeing his playoffs end, dismally.
“Crazy, we’re averaging a top-five finish in the playoffs, and we’re only (21) points above (the cutoff line),” Briscoe said, according to The Tennessean. “Never feel safe at the Roval, but go there and try to do our job. Our road course stuff is pretty good there. See what we can do.”
Perhaps that’s key for Briscoe: Staying safe, and like he put it, finishing ahead of Logano and Chastain.
