Event: My Bariatric Solutions 300 (Round 16 of 33)
Date: July 18, 2020
Location: Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth
Layout: 1.5-mile oval
Chase Briscoe Notes of Interest
• Briscoe brings his No. 98 Ford Performance Racing School Mustang to Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth riding a wave of front-running consistency with four straight top-five finishes. The 25-year-old scored back-to-back wins at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway and Indianapolis Motor Speedway and then finished fourth and second, respectively, in the NASCAR Xfinity Series doubleheader last weekend at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta.
• With nine races remaining in the regular season,Briscoe is atop the championships standings with a 19-point advantage over his nearest pursuer, Noah Gragson. Briscoe’s point standing is emblematic of his season, as he leads the Xfinity Series in wins with five (next best has two wins) and playoff points with 28 (next best has 18). Briscoe is tied with Austin Cindric for the most top-fives with nine apiece, and he is second in top-10s with 12, one fewer than the leader in this category, Ross Chastain. Should Briscoe hold on to this lead through the remaining nine races of the regular season, he will score the regular-season championship and the 15 valuable playoff points that come with it.
• Briscoe has three career Xfinity Series starts at Texas with a best finish of fourth in March 2019.
• Outside of the Xfinity Series, Briscoe has two NASCAR Gander Outdoors & RV Truck Series starts at Texas. Both came in 2017 and both delivered top-fives. Briscoe led seven laps in the June event before being edged out on the final restart by Christopher Bell, the eventual series champion. In the Truck Series’ return to Texas in November, Briscoe finished fourth after starting 10th.
CHASE BRISCOE, Driver of the No. 98 Ford Performance Racing School Ford Mustang:
What are your thoughts on Texas and what are your expectations for the weekend?
“Texas is a really unique track. It’s got one lane of racing and tons of grip, until that moment when there’s no grip at all. You can carry a lot of speed in turns three and four and then it almost feels like you stop when you get back to turns one and two. The results on the Xfinity side haven’t really reflected where we’ve run during the race, so while the track’s not one of my favorites, I think we’ll have a shot at taking the Ford Performance Racing School Mustang back to victory lane.”
The Xfinity Series will race again at Texas in October during the playoffs. Are you going into this weekend focused on this race specifically, or are you playing the long game and trying some things out for later in the year?
“A little of both. Obviously, this week is still very important. We always want to do well when we show up to the track. We’ve been in position to win every week, so there’s no reason to back off of that. But, big picture, the playoff races are important, so we will try a mix of what we know works at Texas as well as trying stuff for the future.”
Does not having practice or qualifying impact that gameplan?
“For sure. Not having practice at Texas or any track that we’ll run again hurts because that’s when we could have tried stuff for the playoffs. You have more time to try different setups and see which adjustments work. It’s just the situation of not having that extra track time. You always want more. But the races have been exciting and Richard Boswell (crew chief) and the guys on this team have done such a good job setting up our Ford Mustangs to unload fast.”
