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CHASE BRISCOE – 2020 NXS Kansas II Race Advance

Event:   Kansas Lottery 300 (Round 30 of 33)
Date:   Oct. 17, 2020
Location:   Kansas Speedway in Kansas City
Layout:   1.5-mile oval

Chase Briscoe Notes of Interest

•  The Kansas Lottery 300 Saturday at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City kicks off the Round of 8 in the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs. The penultimate playoff round encompasses Kansas and then Texas Motor Speedway Oct. 24 and Martinsville (Va.) Speedway 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.

•  Despite a 14th-place finish in his last visit to Kansas back in July, Briscoe proved to be a top-10 mainstay. The driver of the No. 98 Ford Performance Racing School Mustang started sixth in the 37-car field and was well on his way to a top-10 finish until he brushed the wall on the next-to-last lap while racing three-wide for sixth. Even with substantial damage to the right side of his No. 98 Ford Mustang, Briscoe was able to make it across the stripe as the last driver on the lead lap.

•  That 14th-place finish last July was one of three career Xfinity Series starts Briscoe has at Kansas. His best result was a third-place drive in October 2019 when Briscoe led twice for 33 laps and held the top spot until he made contact with the outside wall, forcing the team to pit for repairs with just 15 laps remaining.

•  Briscoe has one NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series start at Kansas in 2017. He finished fifth.

•  Kansas is the site of Briscoe’s final ARCA Racing Series victory, which was part of a six-win championship season where he scored 14 top-fives and 18 top-10s in 20 races. In the October 2016 Kansas 150, Briscoe started from the pole and led twice for a race-high 67 laps to secure the victory by 1.464 seconds over Austin Cindric – who he is currently battling in the Round of 8.

•  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 being the No. 1 seed heading into the Round of 8 and having a series-best eight wins, there are other numbers that bolster Briscoe’s championship aspirations:

•  Briscoe has already led 798 laps this season, 601 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 6.7, an improvement over his 8.8 average starting position last year.

•  Briscoe’s average finishing position is 8.1, bettering his 8.2 average finishing position in 2019.

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

You ran in the top-10 for nearly the entire race earlier this year at Kansas. Do you feel more confident about how the team will perform this weekend after having already raced at the track back in July?

“Our first trip there was one of the worst races of the year. We just missed the balance, but we’ve run well there in the past and we’ve come so far since then. I’m confident we will be good this time going back. We know we need to win early in this round and lock ourselves into Phoenix, but we can’t make any huge mistakes to give away our points lead, so we went back and found some things to work on for this race. We’re taking the car we won with at Vegas, so I feel really good about our chances of taking our Ford Performance Racing School Mustang to victory lane again.”

With the unknowns of Talladega and the Roval behind you, is the pressure of the next round of the playoffs any less?

“I think it’s a little bit less, only because you can control a little bit more of your destiny with the races in the Round of 8. With that said, there is still pressure anytime you’re in the playoffs. We want to be there at the end with a chance to compete for the championship, and this is the time when we have to get that done.”

Between Kansas, Texas and Martinsville, is there a race that you’re more worried about in this Round of 8?

“I would say I’m a little worried about Martinsville, just from the standpoint of having no practice and the Xfinity Series hasn’t run there in years. I’m nervous about the setup because once the race starts, you’re stuck with what you’ve got. Martinsville is a tough place, so it’s harder to adjust and figure it out with what you’ve got if you don’t have the right balance. I know my guys will do everything they can to get it where we need to be. Other than that, I’m confident about both of the mile-and-a half races, but I’m a little bit more about Kansas since we ran so well there last year in the playoff race.”