No one expected Stewart-Haas Racing to make it to the playoffs towards the end of the regular season but Chase Briscoe is currently a round-of-12 driver. He won the final regular season race at Darlington to make the top 16 and there has been no turning back since.
Advertisement
Despite being one of the underdogs, the #14 driver has been consistent and competitive against other playoff drivers. He suffered a DNF in the Atlanta race but followed that up with a P6 and a P8 finish in Watkins Glen and Bristol respectively.
SHR is closing shop at the end of this season so this is the last time the team is ever going to compete for a Cup Series championship title. Briscoe will give it everything he has, but not many people believe in the #14 driver.
Given their season, that’s understandable. But the driver has a lot of faith in himself and his team that he can be a championship contender at the end of the season. It will, however, be a tall order.
“I don’t think anyone believes us, but I really think we can battle for the championship, and I think these last two weeks show that. I mean, we gave ’em a race, right? We went to Atlanta and got one point. At Bristol, we had a lot of adversity and we were better than eighth place,” he said in a media interaction.
He added, “We’ve brought top-five racecars to the track the last four weeks and we’re hitting our stride at the right time.” The SHR driver is currently 12th on the table, seven points behind the round of 8 cutline. The job is tough but it is doable. However, the upcoming tracks are not going to make it easy for the future Joe Gibbs Racing driver.
Briscoe looks forward to the tricky Kansas test
The round of 12 has races scheduled at the Roval and Talladega. They’re both considered wild card events in which an underdog like Briscoe could come in and take the checkered flag. However, the first race will be at the Kansas Speedway. Intermediate tracks have been tough for the #14 team so far this season but the 29-year-old believes that he has what it takes to run well and have a good points day on Sunday.
“I still feel good about it. Intermediates are probably our weakest style of track, but it’s still a track where I feel like we can go to and run well. We’ve always been able to qualify really well on them. We have the speed, we just have to put the balance together for the race,” he added.
Making it past the round of 12 would truly be a massive achievement for Briscoe and SHR. Despite their good run in the last couple of races, it still seems unlikely. However, underdog success stories in NASCAR are not as rare as expected.
