● The Go Bowling at The Glen Sunday at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International is the fourth of five road-course races on the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series schedule. Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Stewart-Haas Racing, finished 13th in the series’ first road-course race of the year March 24 at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas. He then placed 34th in the series’ second road-course stop June 9 at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway after a broken transmission sent him to the garage. In his most recent road-course start on the streets of downtown Chicago for the July 7 Grant Park 165, Briscoe finished 32nd. After Watkins Glen, the final road-course race of the year takes place Oct. 12 at the Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway Roval.
● DYK?: Tony Stewart, the “Stewart” in Stewart-Haas Racing, leads the NASCAR Cup Series in victories at Watkins Glen with five (2002, 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2009). The NASCAR Hall of Famer fell one win shy of tying the series record for most road-course wins at a single track, a mark held by fellow NASCAR Hall of Famer Bobby Allison who scored six wins at Riverside (Calif.) Raceway (1971, 1973, 1975, 1979, January 1981 and November 1981).
● Watkins Glen marks the second race in the 10-race NASCAR Playoffs, and just two races remain before the 16 playoff drivers are whittled down to 12. Briscoe earned his way into the playoffs by winning the regular-season finale Sept. 1 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway. After entering that race 144 points adrift of the top-16 cutoff, Briscoe’s win slotted him 13th in the playoff standings. But then Briscoe was collected in an accident in the opening playoff round last Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The resulting last-place finish has put Briscoe 21 points behind the top-12 cutline, last among the 16 playoff drivers. While not necessarily in a must-win situation like he was two weeks ago at Darlington, Briscoe will need all 90 laps of the Go Bowling at The Glen to maximize stage points and outrun his playoff brethren.
● Briscoe has 22 career road-course starts in the NASCAR Cup Series, with five top-10 finishes spread across COTA (sixth in 2021), Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin (sixth in 2021), Watkins Glen (ninth in 2021), the Charlotte Roval (ninth in 2022) and the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (sixth in 2023).
● The Go Bowling at The Glen will mark Briscoe’s third career NASCAR Cup Series start at the 2.45-mile, seven-turn road course in Upstate New York. His best result came in his Cup Series debut at the track in 2021 when he finished ninth. Since then, Briscoe has endured finishes of 25th (2022) and 35th (2023).
● Briscoe’s prior NASCAR Cup Series start at Watkins Glen was his most unusual at the track. When he came in to make his first pit stop, the lug securing the left-rear tire refused to budge. Despite numerous attempts to loosen the lug amid repeated trips to pit road, it would not move. Briscoe was forced to run the entire race on the same left-rear tire, a testament to Goodyear’s durability.
● Briscoe has made 11 road-course starts in the NASCAR Xfinity Series – the stepping-stone division to the elite NASCAR Cup Series. In fact, it was road-course racing in the Xfinity Series that helped put Briscoe on the map when it came to his burgeoning NASCAR career, as he scored two road-course wins among eight top-10 finishes. At the inaugural race on the Charlotte Roval on Sept. 29, 2018 in what was Briscoe’s 14th career Xfinity Series start, the Mitchell, Indiana, native scored his first Xfinity Series win. Briscoe said afterward that he tapped into his dirt-track experience in wheeling his Ford Mustang to a strong 1.478-second margin of victory over runner-up Justin Marks. “It drove like a dirt track instead of a road course, and it felt like I was in a sprint car. I just tried to make sure the rear tires never spun. I had to give up a little time coming off the corner, but I’d make it back up on the straightaway, and that’s why I was always better at the end of the run.”
● Briscoe’s second Xfinity Series win on a road course came in another inaugural race – the 2020 Brickyard 150 on the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. On July 4, 2020, Briscoe started 12th and methodically worked his way to the front, taking the lead on lap 24. He wound up leading five times for a race-high 30 laps to take the victory by 1.717 seconds ahead of second-place Justin Haley. Despite the win happening during COVID restrictions, Briscoe was elated to win at his home track in a car owned by Indiana icon Tony Stewart. “Everybody knows that my hero in racing was Tony Stewart. To get to drive for him and watch him win at the Brickyard, climbing the fence was always his signature thing and I just wanted to do it. Obviously, it’s not the same prestige as winning on the oval, but we still won at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It doesn’t matter if you’re racing on the oval, the road course, the dirt track or even the parking lot, it’s special when you win here. Growing up, coming here all the time, it’s unbelievable to think that I just won here.”
● In three road-course starts in the ARCA Menards Series, Briscoe has two top-fives, with his first coming in 2016 when he finished fourth at New Jersey Motorsports Park in Millville after starting the 67-lap race in 10th. His other top-five was his 2021 win at Sonoma, where Briscoe absolutely dominated by leading all 51 laps and taking the checkered flag by a whopping 3.110 seconds over runner-up Dylan Upton.
● In Briscoe’s lone road-course start in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, he started 18th and finished seventh in the 2017 race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Bowmanville, Ontario.
● Joining Briscoe at Watkins Glen is HighPoint.com, a leading provider of technology infrastructure solutions that is headquartered in Sparta, New Jersey. HighPoint has been a partner of Briscoe and Stewart-Haas Racing since 2020 when the company supported Briscoe’s NASCAR Xfinity Series campaign, a collaboration that netted a season-best nine victories and earned Briscoe a promotion to the NASCAR Cup Series. HighPoint has climbed the NASCAR ladder with Briscoe and has helped Stewart-Haas maximize its IT investments. Said Briscoe about the partnership: “Even though we race stock cars, there’s nothing stock about what we do. The science of our cars is impressive, but the technology that goes into building our Ford Mustangs and then making them perform is even more advanced. Our IT needs are pretty complex, and we demand a lot from our technology every day, whether it’s at the shop or at the track. HighPoint provides efficiency and security. They’re more than just a sponsor – HighPoint is a partner that helps us perform.” As an IT Solutions Integrator focused on all things that connect, HighPoint helps its customers with the selection and supply of network infrastructure, mobility, collaboration, data center, security solutions and the risk-mitigated implementation and management of their technology. The company, founded in 1996, is a minority-owned business that serves markets in its nearby Tri-State Region (New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware) and the southeastern United States via its presence in Charlotte, North Carolina, as well as globally with offices in Amsterdam and London. To learn more about HighPoint’s solutions, please visit HighPoint.com.
● The story of how HighPoint.com came together with Briscoe and Stewart-Haas is one that could’ve been scripted in Hollywood. In November 2019, while walking to dinner after attending the SEMA show in Las Vegas, Kevin Briscoe was stopped by a stranger who noticed his No. 98 Stewart-Haas hat. The man was Mike Mendiburu, founder and CEO of HighPoint.com, and he said he was a big fan of Chase Briscoe, then a young NASCAR Xfinity Series driver from Mitchell, Indiana, who was driving the No. 98 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas. Kevin informed Mendiburu that Chase was his son and the two carried on a conversation like they were old friends. The two walked away with Kevin accepting Mendiburu’s business card, just in case the Briscoes ever needed anything. Months passed and Chase Briscoe was told that he may not have a ride in the No. 98 for the 2020 season if funding couldn’t be found. So, Stewart-Haas was given Mendiburu’s information and an agreement was reached for HighPoint.com to sponsor Briscoe. That chance encounter in Las Vegas led to a nine-win season in 2020. In October of that year, midway through the playoffs, Briscoe arrived at Tony Stewart’s house in Indiana for what he thought was a discussion with his team owner about whether HighPoint.com would be returning as his sponsor for the next season. The group sat down for dinner and Briscoe, joined by his parents, was informed a decision had already been made – he would be leaving the No. 98 Xfinity Series program to become the next driver of the team’s No. 14 Cup Series entry, the car Stewart himself wheeled during his driving tenure at Stewart-Haas. “I wouldn’t have a career if it wasn’t for Mike and everyone at HighPoint.com,” Briscoe said. “Going into 2020, I was going to be done. They literally came in the fourth quarter with 30 seconds left on the clock and kept things going. Without them, I think my career would’ve been over.”
Chase Briscoe, Driver of the No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang
Watkins Glen has been a stalwart of the NASCAR Cup Series schedule, but this is the first time the venue has been a part of the NASCAR Playoffs. What are your expectations?
“Watkins Glen is one of those races that is completely wide open. How we’re going to run that track is going to be a little bit different with how they’ve changed some of the curbing. It sounds like we’re not going to be able to run as far off the racetrack as we typically do. And the tire is different, too. Last year, my left-rear got stuck, so I ran the entire race with the same left-rear tire and really didn’t have any issues until about 10 to go. But this year, it sounds like in 10 laps you’re going to lose four seconds just with the way the tire wears. There are a ton of variables that are totally new, so that’s why I think it’s going to be wide open.”
You were in a must-win situation to make the playoffs, and you did just that by winning the regular-season finale at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway. With being 21 points below the top-12 cutline with two races remaining before the Round of 12, do you feel you’re back in a must-win situation?
“Not necessarily, but we do need to maximize our day and score as many stage points as possible. And I do think with the tire falloff we’re expecting at Watkins Glen that we’re going to be in good shape. When it’s slick because the tires are worn out, where we’re slipping and sliding around, is typically when we’re our strongest, so I feel like we can win. I’m excited for the challenge.”
How would you rate yourself as a road-course driver?
“I feel like I’m above average. I’ve definitely had way more success in the lower series compared to Cup, where I’ve been kind of hit-or-miss. We’d run really, really good, or we were just off. Truthfully, I feel like the NextGen car has definitely hurt me quite a bit on the road-course side. I feel like the old car with just how badly it drove, you were always slipping and sliding around, it didn’t want to stop. I feel like this NextGen car certainly has closed up the gap. The guys who were typically off on road courses are definitely closer because the NextGen car is just easier to drive on the road courses – it stops better, it turns better, it just does everything better. I feel like I’ve been good on road courses from a speed standpoint, just need to find that little bit more to finally seal the deal on a road course.”
Some guys like road courses, others don’t. Where do you stand when it comes to competing on road courses?
“Having a positive attitude at any racetrack is important. For me, I enjoy road-course races but, truthfully, I used to be terrible at it. So, it kind of got frustrating at times. Then finally something just clicked with me and I was able to win a couple of road-course races and, now, every time we go to a road course, I’m super excited. I look forward to it from the driver’s side of things. Not that you don’t make a difference at the ovals, but I feel like at the road courses, as a driver, you make a little bit more of a difference, so I enjoy that part of it. Just driving a car on a road course is a lot of fun. You’re manhandling it and trying to run as hard as you can and it’s just a lot of fun to do it, so I always enjoy going there.”
You’ve mentioned how your dirt-racing experience makes you a better road-course racer. How so?
“I think there are just a lot of things that carry over. The NextGen car takes some of that out of the equation, but you still have more power a lot of the time on exit than you really need, so you’re spinning the tires and you’ve got to really finesse the throttle, which is a lot like dirt racing. Just how you have to really slide the car around and hustle the car is very similar to dirt racing. I just feel like you drive more on the edge on a road course than you do on an oval. And then just the constant switching directions and the counter-steering, there’s a lot that reminds me of dirt racing. When you look at road racing in the past, a lot of dirt guys were really good in NASCAR. Obviously Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, Kyle Larson now, even Christopher Bell, there are a lot of guys who grew up dirt racing who have a lot of success on the road courses in NASCAR, and I feel that’s because there’s a lot of correlation, as crazy as it seems.”
What do you work on to become a better road-course racer? Obviously, there’s sim, but does your relationship with Ford Performance Racing School also allow you to hone your road-racing techniques?
“There’s a lot that goes into road-course racing, and laps and repetition are probably the biggest keys to that. No matter what road course you’re getting on or what car you’re driving, the techniques and the styles that you run on road courses are super important. It’s been great to have that relationship with Ford Performance Racing School, to get over there and be able to run laps. There’s a lot that goes into road-course racing, especially to be really good at it. Braking is probably the most important thing, trying to be as efficient as you can under braking, and being able to go over to the racing school and just playing around with different types of braking, and being able to be aggressive and trying different things that at the racetrack we don’t get the opportunity to do because we don’t want to mess anything up. Plus, we don’t get a lot of time to practice, so it’s nice to be able to go over there and spend the day and really just try different things.”
The current Cup cars seem exceptionally suited to road-course racing where the cars are forgiving and drivers aren’t penalized for mistakes. Because of that, it seems like there’s more rooting and gouging out on the racetrack than ever before. What’s your take?
“I don’t know if there’s more rooting and gouging, but I feel like it’s just way harder to pass now. Track position is more important than ever. In the past on road courses, even if I had to do a pit stop or whenever I had to do a restart from midpack, I felt confident that if I’d been up front, I could get back up there. Now, it seems that’s not the case. You could be leading the race and then have to restart 20th and you’re kind of just stuck back there because everybody’s almost the same speed. In the past, we’d go to a road course and you’d see five-, six-second spreads throughout the field, where now it’s almost like all of us are within a second and a half. It just makes it harder to get to each other to root and gouge just because the brake zones are so short, everybody’s so efficient now. It’s definitely changed the game going to road-course races with this NextGen car.”
With track position at such a premium on road courses, can you afford to be nice, or do you need to have a selfish and unforgiving attitude?
“I think you have to be extremely selfish now and just aggressive from lap number one, not only at road courses but, truthfully, everywhere. That’s kind of one of the biggest things I’ve focused on, just not giving anybody anything. That’s why I think I’ve probably been more aggressive on the racetrack this year as far as throwing blocks and different things just because you have to now. It’s so hard to get that position back, and if you give one away, it can take you 30 laps just to get that one position back, so you have to be extremely aggressive. I think when you look at the guys who win these races now, they’re all the same way. The aggressive guys are the ones running up front and winning races. So it’s the same on the road courses, but it’s the same on the ovals, now.”
How important is qualifying at road courses? Has it become a bit like Formula One where track position is so precious that in order to finish up front, you really need to start up front?
“The road courses have definitely changed a lot. I definitely miss the days of the old car where it didn’t stop, it didn’t drive well, it had no grip, it was out of control, and it just made it a lot of fun and it definitely seemed like you could pass guys. The new car is just so good on road courses. You can get in the brakes so easily and get in the corners so deep that it’s made passing extremely, extremely hard. It definitely comes down to qualifying. It’s just one of those deals where if you don’t make the final round, you instantly know your Sunday is going to be a challenge. You throw in the aspect of the stages and things like that, and there are just a lot of variables that go into these races, but certainly qualifying is a huge start to your weekend.”
● Event: Go Bowling at The Glen (Round 28 of 36)
● Time/Date: 3 p.m. EDT on Sunday, Sept. 15
● Location: Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International
● Layout: 2.45-mile, seven-turn road course
● Laps/Miles: 90 laps / 220.5 miles
● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 20 laps / Stage 2: 20 laps / Final Stage: 50 laps
● TV/Radio: USA / MRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
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