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CHASE BRISCOE – 2020 NXS Phoenix II Race Advance

Event:  Desert Diamond Casino West Valley 200 (Round 33 of 33)
Date:  Nov. 7, 2020
Location:  Phoenix Raceway
Layout:  1-mile oval

Chase Briscoe Notes of Interest

•  Chase Briscoe, a nine-time winner already this season, looks to add two more trophies to his collection before 2020 comes to a close with the NASCAR Xfinity Series finale at Phoenix Raceway. The driver of the No. 98 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing has had a career-defining year that culminates on Saturday with his first Championship 4 appearance. Briscoe is looking to win the battle and the war by scoring his 10th race victory and the Xfinity Series title. Three other drivers share the same vision – Austin Cindric, Justin Haley and Justin Allgaier – as they join Briscoe in the winner-take-all title chase.

•  While this is Briscoe’s first time in the Championship 4, it’s not his first championship. He already has one title to his name – the 2016 ARCA Racing Series championship where he won six races and the title by a whopping 535 points.

•  Despite his nine wins, Briscoe enters Phoenix on equal footing. Each Championship 4 driver starts the finale with 4,000 points and the title contender who finishes in the highest position at the end of the Desert Diamond Casino West Valley 200 will be crowned the 2020 Xfinity Series champion. While a win isn’t the only way a driver can claim the title, another victory to clinch the championship would make Briscoe just the third driver in series history to earn 10 or more wins in a single season.

•  In addition to racking up a series-leading nine wins, Briscoe has also led 991 laps, the most of any Xfinity Series driver and 794 more laps than he led all last season. The 25-year-old racer from Mitchell, Indiana, has also scored 16 top-five and 21 top-10 finishes while completing 5,354 of the 5,383 laps available (99.5 percent).

•  Phoenix hasn’t been one of Briscoe’s strongest tracks, but track history hasn’t stood in the way of his performance this season. All of Briscoe’s nine wins have come at tracks where he hadn’t won prior to the start of the 2020 season. In fact, Briscoe’s first two wins of the season were at tracks where he hadn’t even scored a top-five. When he won his first race of the year at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in February, his best prior finish was eighth. And when he won at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway in May, his best prior result was sixth.

•  Briscoe has three career Xfinity Series starts at Phoenix and each has resulted in top-10 finishes. His best Xfinity Series result at the 1-mile oval is sixth – scored twice (March 2019 and March 2020). And in the series’ visit to Phoenix last November, Briscoe started third and led 14 laps before finishing eighth.

•  Briscoe also has a NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series start at Phoenix. In November 2017, Briscoe started eighth and finished fourth in his Ford F-150, securing his 13th career top-10. The result served as a prelude to Briscoe’s talent, as he won his first career Truck Series race the very next week in the Ford EcoBoost 200 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

•  Prior to his only Truck Series start at Phoenix, Briscoe ran a NASCAR K&N Pro Series West race at the track in November 2013.

CHASE BRISCOE, Driver of the No. 98 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang:

You have the most wins in the Xfinity Series this year and your nearest pursuer has only five, but Phoenix is one of the tracks where you have yet to win. Does that give you any concern leading into Saturday’s race?

“Phoenix hasn’t been our worst track, but it certainly hasn’t been our best, and the three drivers we’re competing against are there for a reason. They’ve been some of the toughest guys to compete against all season and we know that we’ve got to be on our game. That doesn’t worry me anymore than it should, though. The No. 98 team has improved so much not just from 2019 to 2020, but from the start of the year until now. We’re bringing our best car – one we’ve won with three times this year – and I have all the faith in the world that this group of guys has given everything they can to make sure our HighPoint.com Ford Mustang is ready.”

What would it mean to cap off the year with a championship?

“This has been an incredible season for many reasons, but it would mean a lot to win the championship. It’s not just a reward for me as a driver. The guys at the track and at the shop have worked harder than anyone for this. HighPoint.com, Ford Performance Racing School and all of our other partners deserve it. It wouldn’t be a disappointment if we didn’t win it because we have accomplished so much this year, but it would add a lot more meaning if we could add the title to that list.”