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CHASE BRISCOE – 2020 NXS Talladega II Race Advance

Event: Ag-Pro 300 (Round 28 of 33)
Date: Oct. 3, 2020
Location: Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway
Layout: 2.66-mile oval

Chase Briscoe Notes of Interest

• Chase Briscoe is playing with house money in the Ag-Pro 300 NASCAR Xfinity Series race Saturday at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. The driver of the No. 98 Ford Performance Racing School Mustang won last weekend in the NASCAR Playoffs’ opening race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, securing his spot in next playoff round. Talladega represents the second race in the Round of 12 before the cutoff race for the Round of 8 on Oct. 10 at the Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway Roval. The top-eight drivers after Charlotte move on to the second round, which is comprised of Kansas Speedway on Oct. 17, Texas Motor Speedway on Oct. 24 and Martinsville (Va.) Speedway on Oct. 31. The top-four drivers after Martinsville compete in the Championship 4 at Phoenix, where the highest finishing driver is crowned the 2020 Xfinity Series champion.

• Briscoe dominated last Saturday night at Las Vegas, sweeping the first two stages and leading four times for a race-high 164 laps before securing the win. No other driver led more than 15 laps in the 200-lap race. It was Briscoe’s series-leading eighth win of the season and it came in just the 27th race of the year, putting him in elite company with NASCAR legends Jack Ingram and Sam Ard, each of whom won eight races in 1984 through the series’ first 27 races.

• Briscoe leads the championship standings by 17 points over second-place Austin Cindric. Though the driver of the No. 98 Ford Performance Racing School Mustang has already punched his ticket to the second round of the playoffs, Briscoe looks to add to his total of 55 playoff points as they will all carry over into the penultimate playoff round that begins Oct. 17 at Kansas Speedway.

• Briscoe is in the midst of his second straight playoff appearance. He finished fifth in the Xfinity Series standings last year, narrowly missing out on advancing to the Championship 4 and competing for the series title. He did, however, win the rookie-of-the-year award.

• Beyond leading the championship standings and having a series-best eight wins, other numbers bolster Briscoe’s championship charge:

• Briscoe has already led 702 laps this season, 505 more laps than he led all last season.

• Briscoe has already scored 15 top-fives, two more than he earned last year.

• Briscoe’s average starting position this season is 6.9, an improvement over his 8.8 average starting position last year.

• Briscoe’s average finishing position is 7.4, bettering his 8.2 average finishing position in 2019.

• Briscoe has made three career Xfinity Series starts at Talladega with a best finish of fourth in 2019. He also has one NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series start (finished 22nd in 2017) and one ARCA Series start (finished third in 2016).

CHASE BRISCOE, Driver of the No. 98 Ford Performance Racing School Ford Mustang:

You started off the playoffs with a win last Saturday night at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and also hit your preseason goal of eight victories. Was that a statement win?

“I feel like it was, but anything can change. Every week someone can find something or have a lot of speed. A lot of the races we’ve won this year we haven’t necessarily been the best car, but last weekend we were the best car by quite a bit. It made my job super easy and I’m just so thankful that I get to drive these racecars. It was so good to drive. I can’t put it into words. I think it was a really big statement to come out of the first race in the first round of the playoffs and win. You want to start off good with a lot of momentum and we certainly have that now.”

Are you more excited or relieved to have already secured your spot in the next round of the playoffs as we head to Talladega where anything can happen?

“Relief for sure. I am not the biggest superspeedway fan and when I was in the Truck Series, the race at Talladega knocked me out of the playoffs. Even with the points gap we have right now, if you get crashed early and run 35th on back at Talladega, it puts you in a tough spot going into the Roval. We’ve got two races coming up where anything can happen. I’m definitely going to sleep a lot better this week and I’m actually looking forward to going to Talladega and the Roval now. This weekend is still going to be a whatever happens, happens type of race, but it opens up a lot of scenarios for the next two weeks.”