October 12, 2022 | By Lee Spencer

Chase Briscoe's resilience at the Roval overshadowed by 41 team's shenanigans

CONCORD, N.C.—Chase Briscoe implored his team to give him the ball on Sunday and allow him to run with it at the Charlotte Roval.

Just the belief that the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing crew bestowed in its driver elevated Briscoe’s confidence to complete the task. Briscoe was 13th when NASCAR called the first of two late-race cautions with just five circuits remaining. 

With a bonsai move on the last lap, Briscoe battled his way into the Round of 8.

“It’s a pretty humbling feeling,” Briscoe said. “Just proud of my team for believing in me because they could have easily given up. We didn't have a top 10 from May until three weeks ago. Now, we've had three in a row. 

“Just proud of my guys to continue to fight and proud of my effort. I felt like that was (my) best race ever and start to finish.” 

Briscoe was down, but not out of Playoff contention entering last Sunday’s NASCAR Cup race. Tied for eighth with his former Trans Am Series teammate Austin Cindric, Briscoe had to remain above the cutline throughout the race despite the potential for chaos at the Roval.

What would have seemed like a simple task with the old car —Briscoe scored three top 10s on road course competition in 2022—the new car even the playing field for those who had not excelled on the Cup series circuits in the past. Briscoe won the inaugural Xfinity Series race at the Roval race in 2017 opening the door for an opportunity with Stewart-Haas Racing. 

In just his second season on the Cup tour, Briscoe qualified for the Playoffs and joins Ross Chastain and Christopher Bell as the only first-timers to advance to the Round of 8. Although Briscoe finds himself eighth—and in the Playoff cellar again—he relishes the challenge.

“It's weird, I love having my back up against the wall,” Briscoe said. “I feel like, if you look at my career like, that's when I've performed the best. Like literally I was not going to have a ride and for whatever reason, I  find another level. I guess when I feel like I'm like that. 

“Truthfully, whenever we were 11 down or whatever it was, I was glad that we were 11 down instead of 11 up because I'd know how I respond to that a little bit more…I literally called Zippy(SHR competition director Greg Zipadelli)—probably two months ago—and  I just told him from a strategy standpoint, ‘Give me the ball. Let me try to do something.’” 

Briscoe wanted a greater leadership role with the team. He desired the opportunity to prove that in a Game 7 moment, he was capable of carrying his team to the finish line. Zipadelli agreed.

“He came up to me before the race and said, ‘The ball is in your hand,’” said Briscoe. “I feel like when I am backed into a corner is when I perform my best. I think we're seated eighth out of eight and yeah looking forward to trying to just scrap and claw and try to get there.” 

The celebration of the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing pits at the finish of the NASCAR Cup race at the Roval was reminiscent of past wins, despite Briscoe gutting out a ninth-place finish. While he hadn’t scored a top-10 since finishing fourth in the Coca-Cola 600 in May, Briscoe posted three-straight in the Round of 12. 

“I was more excited than any win I had ever had,” Briscoe said. “Just a really cool feeling and to see how excited my guys were. I told them before the race there's a difference between thinking you can make it and knowing you can make it. I told them that I know we can make it and they know that we can make it, but everybody else doesn't know that we can make it. 

“So it's cool for all of us to be able to prove everybody wrong. That's been the resiliency of this team over the last two years. Just never give up. We’ve had a lot of opportunities where we've been put in bad situations and never given up. Those have all been teaching moments that, it might be for 15th on the race track and people don't realize in the big scheme of things that we were building.

“Those moments and getting experience in those moments is now paying off.” 

While Briscoe was able to savor the moment, that wasn’t the case for his SHR teammate Cole Custer. On the final laps, Custer slowed on the backstretch after the team told the driver he had a tire going down. That enabled Briscoe to gain positions which put him two points above the cutline—but not crucial to moving on to the Round of 8.

After NASCAR determined on Tuesday that the No. 41 team attempted through radio transmission to alter the outcome of the race, Custer was fined $100,000 plus the loss of 50 driver points. SHR was docked 50 owner points and crew chief Mike Shiplett was also fined $100,000 and indefinitely suspended from NASCAR.

“The No. 41 (Custer) slowed abruptly on the back straightaway blocking the No. 3 (Austin Dillon),” said NASCAR Senior Vice President of Competition Scott Miller. “The 14 (Briscoe) went by the 41 and the 3. 

“So obviously with all of the data that we have available to us now data coming off the car for brakes, you know, steering, throttle and all of the audio we dug into all of that and obviously found some things that we felt like we had to react to.”

SHR has elected to appeal the penalty.