Brickyard 400 Media Availability (Chase Briscoe)

Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Brickyard 400 Media Availability | Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Friday, July 19, 2024

Chase Briscoe, the Indiana native and driver of the No. 14 Ford Mustang Dark Horse, spoke with media members Friday afternoon ahead of on-track action at his iconic hometown track.

CHASE BRISCOE, No. 14 Ford Mustang Dark Horse

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT WHAT IT IS LIKE RACING HERE FOR YOU, BEING AN INDIANA NATIVE?
“I am excited to be back home again in Indiana. It’s been nice every year to be able to come up here a couple days early and spend time with my grandparents, family and friends that I don’t get to see a whole lot, so it’s been a fun week, Excited to be back on the oval. Every racecar driver dreams of getting to race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway when you grow up in Indiana, it’s just that much more special. I’ve always said I don’t care what we’re racing on, I just want to race at IMS, whether it’s the road course or the oval, the dirt track over there in the parking lot. But I would be lying if I said there wasn’t more significance in history and just meaning running the oval. So yeah, truthfully, when I came into the Cup Series, we were already running on the road course and I didn’t know if I would ever get a chance to run a Brickyard 400. So to be able to do that this year is something that’s really, really special. It means a lot to me. To be able to do it even in the 14 car and driving for my hero Tony. At least getting to do that one time with the team shut down, this means a lot. So, excited to experience my first Brickyard 400 and a race that I came to a lot as a kid and obviously watched when I wasn’t here. So yeah, special weekend for sure.”

HOW DIFFERENT DO YOU FEEL LIKE IT MIGHT BE CELEBRATING A WIN HERE AT THE OVAL? KNOWING YOU WERE REALLY CLOSE TO WINNING THE ROAD COURSE A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO.
“For me, just getting to race here was special no matter what the configuration was. Even when I won here in 2020, it was on the road course and to me, I still kissed the same bricks, I still climbed the same fence. I was still inside Indianapolis Motor Speedway and I was a winner here. But I mean, it certainly means a little bit more, when it’s on the oval. When you think about the history of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the history is on the oval. It’s not on the road course, but still winning here in general is very, very special. So for me, if I was able to win on the oval, it would mean a little bit more, but it’s going to mean more than any other racetrack I could win at, regardless. That’s something that’s been a tough pill to swallow. When I won here, it was during COVID. I got to do all those things, but I was by myself. I mean my family was literally 10 minutes down the road at my cousin’s house watching the race, celebrating as a family there, and they weren’t here to celebrate that. So I just want to win at Indianapolis with my friends and with my family all here, and if I could do it on the oval, especially at the Brickyard 400, which to me is a hundred percent a crown jewel, would be pretty special.”

YOU’VE NEVER RACED HERE ON THE OVAL, EVEN XFINITY, RIGHT?
“I raced here twice. 2018 and 19.”

YOU’RE ONE OF 10 CUP FULL-TIMERS, WHO HAVE NEVER RACED THE OVAL IN CUP. SO YOU’VE GOT SOME EXPERIENCE AND KNOW THE REFERENCE POINTS FROM THOSE RACES IN XFINITY, BUT HOW MUCH OF A DISADVANTAGE IS THAT TO THE VETERANS AND HOW MUCH IS MAYBE THOUGH THE NEXTGEN A LITTLE BIT OF AN EQUALIZER BECAUSE NOBODY’S RACED THAT ON THE OVAL HERE?
“I think just having laps on the oval is critical for sure from an experience standpoint, just little things here that kind of stand out. I do think there’s some merit to having laps here just with how unique it is and things like that But I do think that it is going to be a pretty big equalizer just for the NextGen car. It’s going to drive very different I would imagine. I never drove the old cup car here but the NextGen car just everywhere we go drives totally different than anything else we normally would do in old cars. So I do think that it is going to be a pretty equal playing field, but there’s still something to be said about having a lot of laps here. You think of guys like Denny and Truex and those guys that have a ton of experience in the Cup Series, they have a lot of laps here. Fortunately for me, I was able to come here a year ago and do the Goodyear test, so that was nice, just to be able to kind of have a full day just to run laps at IMS on the oval and find little things on the racetrack. I definitely think it’s an equalizer with the NextGen car, but there’s still something to having a lot of laps here for sure.”

WHERE WOULD YOU TYPICALLY SIT WHEN YOU CAME AS A FAN FOR A BRICKYARD 400? AND WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR STANDOUT MEMORIES WHEN YOU WERE WATCHING THE RACE?
“We had a sponsor actually in the sprint car. My dad was a crew chief for Damien Gardner in the USAC Sprint Car Series, and their sponsor was Pace Lighting. The guy’s name was Pat Kehoe, and he had a suite in Turn 2. So I remember we would always get to go over there, and it was just a wild experience between Indy 500 and Brickyard 400 going over there and being that close to the racetrack there in Turn 2. But then I remember sitting up here on top one time. I used to sneak into the garage area and I remember walking on pit road. I definitely wasn’t supposed to be out there. I didn’t have a hot pass or anything but I somehow snuck my way out there and was shaking hands with people trying to get just an opportunity down here. So a lot of memories of this place and even my first ever race uniform. I literally got it the brick building when you drive out of Turn 1 and 2, there’s a brick building straight across. That’s where I got my first ever race uniform. So this place has just a lot of meaning to, to obviously me, just how close it is to home. I definitely have a lot of memories. I remember watching Tony win his, his two Brickyards here. I wasn’t here for those. I was watching on TV, but just remember vividly watching those races and just how much it meant to Tony.”

THE BRISTOL TEST, DID THE TIRES REACT THE SAME AS THEY DID IN THE SPRING, OR WAS THERE ANY CHANGE?
“Yeah, it was weird. Like, the first race there, everybody said it was the temperature. And when we tested the other day, it was 90 degrees, and we still corded tires after 40 laps. But at the same time, there’s only six cars there so it never really put any rubber down truthfully, which was kind of weird. That’s the one thing I can’t quite understand I guess is just how we’d raced three or four, I guess two other races with the NextGen car and we never had that problem of putting rubber down or anything and now we just can’t seem to do it. I don’t know, we definitely had tire wear but I think if we had 40-something cars out there it would have been a little bit different too, but definitely was kind of the same characteristics that we had at the race.”

CAN YOU GIVE ME A SENSE OF WHAT YOU THINK RESTARTS WILL BE LIKE AND ALSO THE CHALLENGE SINCE IT’S BEEN FOUR YEARS SINCE YOU GUYS HAVE BARRELED INTO TURN ONE AND THE CHALLENGE ESPECIALLY IF YOU’RE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PACK TRYING TO FIND YOUR SPOTS, THE SIGHT LINES AND EVERYTHING ELSE, BECAUSE YOU’VE GOT SO MUCH TRAFFIC AROUND YOU IN SUCH A TIGHT SPACE. WHAT IS THAT GOING TO BE LIKE AND HOW CHALLENGING IS IT THE DEEPER IN THE FIELD BECAUSE OF THE LOSS OF SIGHT LINES?
“Yeah, this car is going to be totally different than anything any of us have experienced here from that standpoint. The old car, if you were on the inside, you’d be really loose with guys right on your door and it was just hard to run side by side anywhere, so we struggled to run side by side in the corner where when you come to a racetrack like this, it was extremely hard, just on a restart, you’d have to get single file as soon as you can. With the Next Gen car, that’s the one thing it does really well. We can run side by side for five, six laps sometimes, literally door to door with each other and the car side drafts so extremely and I definitely think that restarts are going to be unlike anything we’ve experienced at IMS, especially in the Cup era. Even just the racing here I think is going to be totally different because of that. We can run side by side now, the runs that we’re going to get down the straightaway and even just how this car reacts side by side. You know that the outside guy is going to be able to pull ahead but then as soon as you get on the guy’s left rear it makes him super tight and it’s just going to be back and forth, back and forth. We’ve seen that at other racetracks where we just can’t break away from each other and I do think it’s going to be like that here to a certain extent. Being deep in the pack is obviously going to be hard, just not having experience of where those lift points are those first couple times. And visibility is definitely a struggle. But we don’t have that huge tall spoiler on or something like that, so it’ll be a little bit easier to see, but that dirty air in the middle of the pack is definitely going to be a struggle for sure.”

IS THERE ANYTHING IN PRACTICE THAT YOU’RE GOING TO WANT TO DO BESIDES JUST TRY TO GET A FAST LAP IN TERMS OF TRYING TO SEE HOW YOU RACE AROUND CARS, OR IS THAT THE SIDE-BY-SIDE AND WHAT YOU CAN DO THERE JUST GOING TO BE BASED OFF OF HISTORY AND WHAT YOU LEARN ONCE YOU GET INTO THE RACE?
“I think everybody’s different. For me I definitely want to get my car driving good and have as much speed in it as we can because this is a place where you just have to have that raw speed. I want to try in this hour practice or whatever it is, to get behind other cars because we’re not gonna really be in 100% clean air at any point in race unless you’re the leader So you need to figure out what your car is gonna do in traffic thinat transition and that’ll be something I think you’re seeing honestly a large majority of the field do just because if your car will drive good you know behind somebody it’s probably gonna drive pretty good by itself so you’re definitely gonna put yourself in in different spots and just trying to figure out what you have to do to set yourself up to pass people, how you build a run, how you do things like that. I definitely think that you’ll see a lot of guys putting themselves in traffic today.”

TO BE ABLE TO DRIVE THE 14 AROUND HERE WITH TONY BEING YOUR HERO, COME SUNDAY IS IT GOING TO REALLY START TO SET IN THAT THIS IS THE END OF THE RIDE FOR YOU AT STEWART-HAAS RACING
“It’s gonna be emotional for me. Full transparency, I cry every year just on the ride around deal. With it being on the oval and doing it in the 14, all that, it’s going to be definitely probably be emotional for me. It’s something that I honestly hadn’t even thought about until a couple weeks ago. We were actually doing an interview with IMS for the program. He had asked me, what do you think about this being your only time getting around the 14 at the Brickyard? I didn’t even think about it until that point. It’s definitely gonna be emotional, but for seven or ten year old Chase, if you would have told him that he was gonna get around one Brickyard 400 in the 14 car for Tony Stewart, I don’t think I would ever believe you. I’m glad you know how it all played out with SHR closing down this year. It would have been a bummer if we would ran the road course this year and then next year would have moved to oval and I would have never got that opportunity. The only thing that would make this weekend cooler is if Tony was allowed to be here. It’s obviously an NHRA weekend so he won’t be able to be here but we’ll for sure try to get the 14 back in victory lane like it’s been here. Well, I guess the 14 with Tony hasn’t been in victory lane before but it would be pretty cool to get Stewart-Haas back in victory lane here for sure.”

WITH FIVE RACES TO GO, YOU’RE KIND OF FLOATING IN BUBBLE LAND. WHAT ARE YOU AND THE 14 TEAM LOOKING AT TO TRY TO GET THAT WIN WITH, YOU KNOW, FOUR SPOTS LEFT IN THE PLAYOFFS?
“We’ve got to be better, right? We’ve had a couple opportunities at New Hampshire and Nashville to win and came up a little bit short. We’re in that weird spot where we could maybe potentially point our way in, but realistically, we probably have to win, which, at a place like this I think is nice to know that you’re in that must-win situation because you can just get super aggressive with strategy where if we were 20 points out of the cut line or something we would probably have to play it a little more conservative. Where we’re at right now, we can be really aggressive with strategy. That’s what Boswell and all the guys will try to do. We definitely feel like we’re in a must-win territory with how we kind of ran and the stage points and things like that. It’s probably going to be hard to point our way in.”

HOW MANY FRIENDS AND FAMILY DID YOU HAVE TO GET TICKETS FOR TO BE HERE THIS WEEKEND?
“Quite a bit. Saturday, tomorrow, we got 500 tickets. Back in December, with the Gene Haas Foundation, actually, we donated a bike for every kid from my hometown, from kindergarten to fifth grade. A lot of the high schoolers at my school helped build those bikes. So every kid that helped build the bikes got two tickets to come to tomorrow’s race. So we’re gonna have 500 tickets that we pass out for tomorrow, just for the whole town of Mitchell. They have a spot over in the corner, so I’m gonna try to sneak over there and surprise them after qualifying. Then for the race, there’s a lot. I think I sent in like 40-something pit passes. So I’m pretty much out for the entire season now. I’ve got a ton of people coming. Every time we come here, I have a ton of people just from Lawrence County even that come that never go to another race the rest of the year. They’re not even necessarily NASCAR fans, but they come up here to support me. So it’s always just a really special weekend. Being a Hoosier driver at IMS, it’s always special. Just the whole place kind of rallies around you. So I feel like every time I come here, I can find this other gear, just because I know how many people are here watching me. And hopefully it’ll be the same this weekend.”

YOUR TEAMMATE JOSH BERRY HAS CAITLIN CLARK ON HIS CAR. HOW COOL IS THAT TO SEE SUCH AN ICONIC FIGURE FOR ALL OF SPORTS, BUT ALSO FOR RIGHT HERE IN INDIANA, BE REPRESENTED AND ON A NASCAR CAR THIS WEEKEND?
“Yeah, it’s cool. Caitlin obviously has done a ton for the sport of basketball, right? But then especially, you know, Indiana Fever games are sold out every single night now. So yeah, I’m jealous. I don’t think she’s coming. I was trying to make sure that I could meet her. I think a couple of the Colts guys are coming, which is going to be really cool. I’m obviously a big Colts fan, so I think a couple of them I’ll get to meet and hang out with. It’s a cool weekend to have some type of Indiana sports in the race, and having Caitlin on the hood of that car is really cool. So hopefully they can give her a good run. Hopefully, he runs second and I win and it’s a good weekend.”

CAN YOU WALK US THROUGH THIS YEAR WITH THE CHANGES THERE AT STEWART-HAAS RACING. THE APPREHENSION THAT KIND OF WAS GOING ON, AND THEN THE FACT THAT YOU DID FIND A RIDE FOR 2025, AND HOW BIG A RELIEF THAT IS.
“It’s definitely been a tough year. Truthfully, as crazy as it sounds, I really thought I would retire in the 14 car. I thought that was just gonna be something that I was gonna be in for my entire career. We knew that there were rumors going around about the team potentially shutting down or changing what it looked like. I think we all knew that there was gonna be a change. We just weren’t sure what it was. I didn’t know if the 14 was gonna stay and maybe one of the other cars and I would still have a place at SHR or what it was gonna look like. Then when Tony came and told us that all four of them are going away, it was a little bit of a surprise. I think we all knew that there was going to be change, we just didn’t think it was going to be all four. So then everything started changing in my world really, really quickly. I literally found out on Tuesday that I wasn’t going to have a ride the following year. Then literally a week later being signed with Joe Gibbs was definitely a crazy whirlwind. It’s kind of ironic going like the reverse Tony Stewart path, going from JGR to SHR instead I went from SHR to JGR. So yeah, it’s definitely been a crazy season in my life even. Not even on the racetrack, but off the racetrack, having twins coming in October and having a 2-and-a-half-year-old at home already. Then finding out you’re not going to have a job, you’re going to have three kids soon. It’s been a lot going on in my life. I’m glad that it all obviously worked out and I’m having an incredible opportunity next year. But right now the main focus is obviously trying to get the 14 car back in victory lane and going out on top like it deserves.