Road-course racing is not fun for a lot of the current NASCAR Cup Series drivers. Racers find it hard to make a good exit out of turns since the Next-gen car carries a lot of power. You’d have to slow down your car a lot to make a good exit but that can leave you vulnerable on the straights. However, if you managed to slide the car around the corner and get on the throttle at the right time, you’d have an advantage. That’s exactly how drivers race on dirt tracks.
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Even on dirt ovals, drivers have to slide their cars up the track on the turns and get on the throttle as they go down the straights. Mastering this technique is quite useful in NASCAR’s road course races. A lot of the specialists at such tracks used to be dirt car racers like Kyle Larson, Tony Stewart, and Jeff Gordon to name a few. Chase Briscoe also used to be a dirt racer and believes that those skills still come in handy a lot at these tracks.
“You still have more power a lot of the time on exit than you really need, so you’re spinning the tires and you’ve got to really finesse the throttle, which is a lot like dirt racing. Just how you have to really slide the car around and hustle the car is very similar to dirt racing. I just feel like you drive more on the edge on a road course than you do on an oval,” he said in a recent media interaction.
The NASCAR Cup Series goes to Watkins Glen on Sunday for the second race of the 2024 Cup Series playoffs. Briscoe needs a good performance at the track since he currently sits outside the round of 12 bubble. The Stewart-Haas Racing driver will surely put all of this dirt racing knowledge to use when the time comes.
Briscoe looking forward to the road course test this weekend
Briscoe likes racing on road courses now but there used to be times when he was frustrated by it. Most of the NASCAR drivers ply their craft on oval tracks. Road-course racing is a whole different ball game and most of them find it tough. The SHR star was also the same but ever since he figured out what to do to run well at such tracks, he has been a fan of the road courses.
“I enjoy road-course races but, truthfully, I used to be terrible at it. So, it kind of got frustrating at times. Then finally something just clicked with me and I was able to win a couple of road-course races and, now, every time we go to a road course, I’m super excited. I look forward to it from the driver’s side of things,” he added.
It will be interesting to see how the driver of the #14 car manages to run at the Watkins Glen track on Sunday. Another race win would be magnificent for him and the whole of SHR which won’t be in NASCAR after this season.
