Chase Briscoe heading west for NASCAR Cup Series event at Sonoma Raceway
SONOMA, Ca. — Mitchell's Chase Briscoe has not enjoyed the runaround in recent weeks on the NASCAR Cup Series circuit. so he's hoping for some positive twists and turns this weekend when competition returns to the road course at Sonoma Raceway in California.
Aside from a fourth-place finish two weeks ago, Briscoe and the No.14 Mahindra Tractors/Ford Performance Racing School team for Stewart-Haas Racing has been in something of a slump on the oval tracks, so another crack at road racing will be a welcome recipe.
The Save Mart 350k, the 16th race on the 36-event schedule, is slated to start at 4 p.m. EDT on Father's Day. The race is set for 110 laps, divided into segments of 25, 30 and 55 laps, for 218.9 miles over the 1.99-mile layout.
It will be televised on FS1 with the radio broadcast on PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
Road to recovery?
Prior to his impressive run at Charlotte Motor Speedway two weeks ago, Briscoe had struggled through finishes of 22nd, 37th, 13th, 20th, 24th and 18th to fall to 14th place in the driver standings.
The finish at Charlotte, his second top 10 since his win at Phoenix in Week 5, was a big lift and he backed it up by earning his first Busch Light Pole position for last week's oval race at Worldwide Technology Raceway in St. Louis.
That momentum went south, however, when Briscoe suffered a flat left-rear tire that halted all his progress and sent him to the tail of the field. He fought back to finish 24th, so he's hoping that Sonoma provides a road to recovery. Briscoe realizes it won't be easy because he doesn't possess a wealth of experience at Sonoma, but he has proven to be tough on road courses.
“Last year was tough," he said of his Cup Series debut at the track. "Sonoma is a super technical track, and the only experience I had there was in the ARCA West race the day before, so I didn’t have a whole lot to use to prepare.
"I think I’ve become more confident as a driver. Last year, I was trying really hard to learn how to race in the Cup Series while not messing up other drivers and I realized I had to get over that. I learned a lot more by getting up there and racing these guys to see what I could figure out from how they drive certain tracks. This season has been good so far. We got off a little after the Phoenix win, and COTA didn’t really go the way we wanted, but I’m excited to get to another road course and see how it goes.
"This car is much better on road courses than what we’ve had in the past and I think this is a chance for us to get another really good finish and maybe another win to secure our spot in the playoffs a little more than it is now.”
Carrying Ford Performance flag
Briscoe will be back behind the wheel of the Ford Performance Racing School-branded Mustang on Sunday. Ford Performance Racing School is the only school to wear the Ford oval, and Ford is the only full-line vehicle manufacturer to offer product-focused experiential driving programs exclusively to the owners of its complete line of performance vehicles, from cars to trucks to SUVs.
Briscoe has one start at the 1.99-mile, 10-turn Sonoma road course. He started 25th and finished 17th last season. In eight Cup Series starts on road courses, Briscoe has three top-10 finishes and was just shy of earning his career first Cup Series victory on the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway last summer.
The 27-year-old racer from Mitchell, picked up two Xfinity Series wins on road courses — his first career Xfinity Series victory was in the series’ inaugural race on the Charlotte Roval in 2018. He also fulfilled his childhood dream of kissing the historic Yard of Bricks when he scored his fifth win of the 2020 season on the Indianapolis road course.
Briscoe finished among the top-10 in all but three of the 10 road-course races in which he competed in the Xfinity Series. And in his lone NASCAR Camping World Truck Series start on a road course – 2017 at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park in Bowmanville, Ontario – Briscoe finished seventh in a Ford F-150.
Taking tips from Tony
Briscoe is 145 points out of first and currently holds a spot in the 16-driver playoff field by virtue of his March 13 win at Phoenix Raceway. He said he may turn to his boss to get some tips for Sonoma and possibly help him snap out of the slide. Tony Stewart was tremendous on road courses, and could offer some advice.
“Yeah, it seems like dirt racers have done pretty well at Sonoma in the past," Briscoe noted. "I haven’t talked to Tony specifically about Sonoma, but I’ll be with him later this week and might have to pick his brain a little on what we can do.
"I think I understand the car a little better this time around, and knowing the track helps. So, I kind of know what I need to focus on and maybe he can help out with that.”
Contact Times-Mail Sports Writer Jeff Bartlett at jeffb@tmnews.com, or on Twitter @jeffbtmnews.
This article originally appeared on The Times-Mail: Briscoe building for return to road racing as Cup Series shifts west
