● The Bank of America Roval 400 Sunday at the Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway Roval is the fifth and final road-course race on the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series schedule. Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 Ford Performance Racing School 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. On the streets of downtown Chicago for the July 7 Grant Park 165, Briscoe finished 32nd. In his most recent road-course start Sept. 15 at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International, Briscoe finished a best-in-class sixth. The next-best playoff driver was 10th-place Austin Cindric, as 14 of the 16 original playoff drivers finished outside of the top-10. That drive, combined with Briscoe’s eighth-place finish the following week at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, gave him the necessary buffer to advance into the Round of 12.
● Even if Briscoe doesn’t win the Bank of America Roval 400, he can still point his way into the Round of 8. A win, of course, would punch his ticket to the next playoff round, but it is possible for Briscoe to overcome his 32-point deficit to the top-eight cutoff. The Mitchell, Indiana, native needs to outperform his 11 other playoff protagonists by maximizing stage points and securing a strong finish. Outside of a race victory, the ultimate scenario would be to win both stages to earn a total of 20 bonus points (10 points for each stage victory) and finish second, which is worth 35 points. Briscoe also needs the 11 playoff drivers ahead of him to have some misfortune, akin to what he experienced last Sunday at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway when Briscoe was collected in a 27-car accident – the largest crash in NASCAR’s 76-year history – which left him with a 30th-place finish. That result put Briscoe into this playoff predicament at Charlotte, with the Bank of America Roval 400 serving as the final race in the Round of 12, punting four drivers out of the playoffs and leaving just eight for the penultimate playoff round.
● Briscoe has 23 career road-course starts in the NASCAR Cup Series, with six top-10 finishes spread across COTA (sixth in 2021), Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin (sixth in 2021), Watkins Glen (sixth in 2024 and ninth in 2021), the Charlotte Roval (ninth in 2022) and the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (sixth in 2023).
● The Bank of America Roval 400 will mark Briscoe’s fourth career NASCAR Cup Series start at the 2.28-mile, 17-turn road course nestled inside Charlotte Motor Speedway. His ninth-place drive in 2022 is his best result.
● Despite those three prior NASCAR Cup Series starts on the Roval, Briscoe and his counterparts will face a slightly reconfigured layout when they begin turning laps on Saturday during practice and qualifying. From the exit of turn five, an elongated straightaway greets drivers before funneling them into turn six. From that standard, right-hand corner, drivers shoot down another short straight before navigating a super-tight, left-hand hairpin that sends drivers back onto the NASCAR oval in traditional turn one. And then toward the end of the lap as they exit off the NASCAR oval in traditional turn four, drivers will have to navigate a reshaped chicane which will create a harder and more emphatic braking zone before transitioning back onto the frontstretch and crossing the start/finish line.
● 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 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.
● Ford Performance Racing School adorns Briscoe’s No. 14 Ford Mustang Dark Horse this weekend at Charlotte. It 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.
Chase Briscoe, Driver of the No. 14 Ford Performance Racing School Ford Mustang Dark Horse
Does your top-10 run four weeks ago at Watkins Glen provide any kind of expectations for the Roval? More specifically, can your learnings from Watkins Glen transfer to the Roval?
“Certainly some of the stuff we learned at Watkins Glen can apply to the Roval. Even from a confidence standpoint, I feel like our road-course stuff has been OK, but we haven’t been phenomenal. At Watkins Glen, we felt like we were a third- or fourth-place car, so now that goes a long way. There is some setup stuff that does apply. Watkins Glen is a complete 180 compared to what the Roval is, but still the same general things can apply. If we would’ve left Watkins Glen around 30th and just slow, we wouldn’t have felt as good about the Roval. But leaving Watkins Glen like we did, I definitely believe the Roval’s a place we feel good about, and it’s always been a track that I understand pretty well. And this time it will be a little bit different with the changes, but it’s still 90 percent the same racetrack.”
How different is the Roval compared to a traditional road-course layout?
“The Roval just feels like the short track of road courses. It feels like you’re going to Martinsville or Bristol, where just everything is way tighter, it’s narrower. You don’t have these super-long straightaways and you can see the whole track. Even inside the racecar when I’m going through turn four and turn five, I can see guys on the other side of the racetrack where, at a typical road course, I can’t do that. So it just feels like it’s a really tight, confined area.”
What makes the Roval unique?
“There’s no other track we go to that’s part oval and part road course. The Roval is the race where I feel like every single year in the playoffs everything kind of gets flipped upside down. Anything can happen there. It’s tight, it’s narrow and chaos always seems to ensue. It’s an important race. It’s a race where you can make or lose a lot of points.”
The Roval’s layout has been updated for this year. What’s changed and how will it affect the racing?
“I’m not sure of the corner numbers, but essentially that whole little back section before you turn back onto the big track, that’s completely different now. I think it’s going to be way better. You’re going to go over this crest and it’s going to be completely blind. I think we’ll probably catch some air over that. We’re not going to have a clue where we’re going and it’s going to be one of the faster parts of the racetrack. Then you’re going into a 90-degree corner, and it’s going to lead to super-heavy braking, a complete 180 back onto the racetrack. I think that’s going to create two more passing opportunities that we haven’t had at the Roval before, at least in that whole section. And then the frontstretch chicane is totally different, which I think all of us are already pretty nervous about. It’s already tight as it is and they made it even tighter. So it’s going to be chaos at the Roval, but there’s always chaos at the Roval. I think this will make it even more chaotic.”
What does tightening that last chicane prior to the start/finish line do?
“It’s going to slow us down. That’s something I think they’re trying to do, just make that more of a braking zone and even more of a passing opportunity. It’s definitely going to change how that whole front straightaway races. But the biggest implication will be on restarts. Last year was the first time we went through that chicane for an actual restart, and it was hairy just trying to go through there two wide, and now it’s going to be even tighter. The restarts are going to be very, very interesting now.”
Talk about how your time at the Ford Performance Racing School has made you a better road-course driver.
“Just the relationship we’ve had with the Ford Performance Racing School has been really, really good for me. Just getting to go over there, really any week I want, and turn laps in a Mustang and try different techniques and different things has been super helpful. They have a ton of different instructors with different kinds of experiences and backgrounds, and I can go over there and talk to three different ones and get three different techniques to try. And I can apply which technique I feel suits me the best. So it’s been a huge thing for me to be associated with them, and just the professionalism that they have obviously makes it really nice too. It’s for sure a big help. I typically try go over there before every road-course race we have and at least run an hour or so in in a different type of Mustang and just try to get back in that road-course mindset. Some guys go to GoPro (Motorplex) and run go-karts and other things like that, but for me, I go over there to the Ford Performance Racing School. I feel like it definitely helps.”
You don’t use the exact same Roval course at the Ford Performance Racing School that you do when you race at the Roval in the NASCAR Cup Series, but you still run a majority of the same layout. What can you take away from running a street version of the Ford Mustang Dark Horse on the Roval before you climb into your No. 14 Ford Mustang Dark Horse from Stewart-Haas?
“When you go over there, the cars are different. The Ford Mustang Dark Horse you drive there doesn’t drive like the Ford Mustang Dark Horse we race in Cup, but the racetrack is still fairly the same. It’s a little bit different configuration, but it’s still the Roval. I can go there year after year and kind of see changes before we get there on a race weekend. Even though it’s in a street car, you still pick up on visual things that are different – the feel, the curves, everything – and you can try different lines in the Mustang and you just have more time to do it. When we show up on a race weekend, you get 20 minutes, and it doesn’t really allow you the opportunity to try different things in different lines where, when I go to the Ford Performance Racing School, I can do that. I can I have all afternoon to try different things if I want to. Just seeing different lines and trying different things and feeling the difference in grip levels on the pavement or the paint. All of it adds up. It’s nice to just have that relationship and be able to have that in your back pocket every time you go to the Roval.”
So the Ford Performance Racing School is more than just a sponsor? They’re akin to a technical partner or a coach?
“It’s definitely more than just the logo on the racecars. It’s something that I certainly use, and it’s a huge asset for us as a race team to be able to just go and look at the Roval. I guess anybody could drive over there and look at the racetrack, but for us to be able to actually get behind the wheel and see the racetrack and visually have the same perception you do in the racecars is really, really nice to have. It’s for sure a technical partnership, and they definitely help us a lot.”
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.”
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