Briscoe must bounce back from big hit at Talladega with strong race in Dover
DOVER, De. — Mitchell's Chase Briscoe has enjoyed some hometown Hoosier hospitality this week.
A nice scheduling bonus on his "Chase'n Dirt Tour" — a barnstorming gig racing Sprints and Late Models that the NASCAR Cup Series star is getting to enjoy this summer thanks to his primary sponsor, Mahindra Tractors — allowed him to race the Late Model at Brownstown Speedway Wednesday night.
So Briscoe got to be home for a few days while he tested the Kent Robinson-owned car. Then, however, he had to quickly get back to the big business at hand, and that immediately is how well he can bounce back from the biggest hit of his young NASCAR career.
It came early in last week's Geico 500 at Talladega Superspeedway when he was pounded by a spinning car, then clipped by another. It destroyed the No.14 Mahindra Tractors/SHR Racing Ford, but Briscoe climbed out, was released by the infield care center, and declared he was okay.
“It was just toward the end of the stage and we were trying to get stage points because at the end of this deal you never know what can happen," Briscoe said. "That is not normally the mentality I would go with. I normally try to ride around and wait until the end.
"It seems like we always get so desperate toward the end of the stages. I felt like if I could get to the bottom I could get to eighth or ninth, if I was lucky. Looking back, that obviously wasn’t the right decision. The 16 (Daniel Hemric), I don't know what happened to him. I know I got into the back of somebody and then the 16, I saw him on the apron and he kind of landed in my lap when I came back across the racetrack.
"It was a hard hit but I feel a lot better than I thought I was going to when I saw the hit coming. All good. Unfortunate to kind of have a huge hole points-wise now. I guess we go to Dover next week and see if we can have a better result.”
Digging out in Dover
Unfortunately, the accident left him in 37th place, a big ding in the points that dropped him to 12th in the standings, so he needs a strong rebound this week when the series shifts to Dover Motor Speedway for the Dover 400 Sunday at 3 p.m. EDT.
It will be 400 laps (120/130/150) for 400 miles over the 1-mile layout, with FS! providing television coverage, and PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio handling the radio broadcast.
Briscoe enjoys competing at Dover though his one Cup Series start there resulted in a 35th-place finish. He started the race 17th and ran inside the top-20 before losing a right-rear tire at the end of the first stage. Trouble plagued the No. 14 team for the rest of the race, forcing Briscoe to make additional pits stops before a visit to the garage to diagnose handling issues. Briscoe finished the event, albeit 60 laps behind the leader.
“Yeah, I’ve always loved going there," he confirmed. "It’s really high-speed, high-commitment, high-reward, and those are the kind of places I enjoy running. So yeah, I’ve always enjoyed going there and I’d love to get another win there.
"It’s one of my favorite racetracks, especially when we can move around and run other lanes, and that’s the area I’m kind of curious to see how this NextGen car kind of plays into that. It’ll be a really fast track this weekend, so hopefully we’ll have a fast car and be able to take advantage of it.”
Success in Delaware
The dirt racer from Mitchell found his way victory lane at the Monster Mile in the second race of the 2020 NASCAR Xfinity Series Saturday-Sunday doubleheader at the concrete oval. Briscoe started last in the Sunday race after going to a backup car and proceeded to lead three times for a race-high 107 laps en route to his sixth win of the season. He won the race by a commanding 2.463-second margin over second-place Ross Chastain.
Overall, Briscoe has five starts in the Xfinity Series at Dover, his win in 2020 among his three top-five finishes and four top-10s. He also made one NASCAR Camping World Truck Series start at Dover in June 2017, finishing 12th after earning his first career NASCAR pole.
Negotiating the Monster Mile
Briscoe talked about the vagaries of the Dover oval that must command a driver's attention, particularly taking the new NextGen car there for the first time.
"I’ve been running Dover on the simulator for the last two or three weeks, and I feel like, from a driving standpoint, the new car drives pretty good," he said. "I don’t know what to expect, though, it’s hard to say. This car has raced really, really well on high-speed racetracks.
"Dirty air has been way less of a factor than it was in the old car. But then when we go to the short tracks, it’s kind of been the opposite. So, I don’t know where Dover’s going to fall in that. I will say the car on the simulator at least drove better than I thought it would, so I’m kind of interested to see what happens when we get there.
"It’s definitely going to be extremely fast in the corner. From a physical side, it’s going to be probably one of the toughest races this year, just with ride quality and the G-forces and things like that.”
Contact Times-Mail Sports Writer Jeff Bartlett at jeffb@tmnews.com, or on Twitter @jeffbtmnews.
This article originally appeared on The Times-Mail: Mitchell's Chase Briscoe bouncing back from big contact in Talladega
