While Chase Briscoe’s had a trying year, his victory at the Charlotte ROVAL likely makes things sweeter. (Photo Credit: Stephen Conley/TPF)
Chase Briscoe, who’s split his partial season in NASCAR XFINITY Series between two rides, finally broke through on Saturday at the Charlotte ROVAL.
In fact, Briscoe’s time finally came during Saturday’s running of the Drive For The Cure 200. Piloting the No. 98 Ford Mustang for Fred Biagi from the ninth starting position, with a little pit strategy, Briscoe ended up in the front of the field.
This is Briscoe’s first win in the XFINITY Series in only his 14th start. In a trying year, Briscoe’s victory at Eldora in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series in July was sweetened by his triumph in Charlotte.
“I really learned at Mid-Ohio about letting the car just roll on road courses as I’ve been awful on road courses,” Briscoe said. “That didn’t seem to help early, but I just started letting it happen.”
Notably, Chase Briscoe has worked on his road racing skills this season as Ford has invested in him by entering him in the IMSA Sports Car Series on several occasions in 2018.
All of that work finally paid off.
“I said to (Richard) Boswell (Crew Chief) that I can’t believe I finally lead a lap on a race track,” Briscoe observed.
Team Support
Team owner Fred Biagi praised Briscoe, noting how “he is a hell of a driver.”
“It’s great to be able to help develop a young driver,” Biagi said. “His drive to succeed and win is infectious and it’s a great thing to have with the team.”
Briscoe said, “I’m a dirt guy, so people expected to me to win at Eldora, but no one really expected this.”
He gave a lot of credit to Cole Custer for helping him and leading up to this success.
“Everyone at Stewart-Haas Racing has been tremendous for helping building my career,” he added.
One of the biggest bullets Briscoe had to dodge was Daniel Hemric who has been fast in the XFINITY and Cup sessions this weekend. Late in the final stage, Briscoe said he breathed a sigh of relief as he saw Hemric having to pull off to serve a penalty for missing the chicane on the front stretch.
“I hate it for him as they are battling for a championship,” Briscoe said. “It meant a lot to me to be able to battle Hemric, Justin Marks, who is great on road courses.”
“I nearly through it away as the sections I was better than him on was such a fine line,” Briscoe noted. “Just before that penalty, I nearly blew turn 8 and I thought Hemric would really take a shot after that. It certainly was nice to go from six car lengths to 16 as I pulled off. I knew it wasn’t over, especially on that final restart. Austin Cindric wasn’t giving it to me easily.”
