Ford Performance NASCAR: California (Chase Briscoe Media Availability)

Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR XFINITY Series (NXS)
Friday, February 28, 2020
EVENT: NASCAR Xfinity Series Media Availability

CHASE BRISCOE, No. 98 Production Alliance Group Ford Mustang

YOU SAID YOU FEEL LIKE YOU NEED TO GET EIGHT WINS THIS SEASON TO KEEP YOUR FUTURE GOING. IS THAT JUST THE LAY OF THE LAND AND NATURE OF WHERE WE ARE AT? WHAT GOES INTO THAT STATEMENT? “I think just knowing how good our cars are and the big three moving up creates an opportunity, not to win easily, but have a better chance to win. Cole won six or seven and last year I felt like I had a little bit of an excuse because I didn’t have the experience and hadn’t even been to a lot of the tracks. Now I feel like I have that and there is no reason that we can’t go perform. If we do our jobs right I feel like we can win more than 10. That is just kind of where I am coming from. I feel like I always put a lot of pressure on myself. The investment that Ford has put in me the past three or four years, winning one or two races is great but I am to that point that I have the experience and don’t have that excuse any more. I feel like I need to win that much and if I do, I think that will hopefully put my name in the mix to maybe go Cup racing. I don’t understand why if I won one or two races why they would move me up to Cup because I haven’t done enough. If I go win eight to 10 then it shows I am ready to have a chance at it.”

DURING THE PLAYOFFS LAST YEAR THERE WAS THE BIG THREE AND IT FELT LIKE YOU AS THE FOURTH GUY WERE JUST AS GOOD. HOW SATISFYING IS IT FOR YOU TO COME TO VEGAS, WIN THERE AND MAINTAIN THE SPEED DURING THE OFF-SEASON? “I feel like, especially in the playoffs, we could have won four or five of the playoff races and weird stuff happened at the end. I feel we were just as good as the big three guys, like you said. I think that is why my expectations are so high because I know we were just as good as they were at the end of last year and if we transition that to this year I feel like we will be really strong. We have a new body on the Mustang and that took a little time at Vegas to figure out how much different it drove, but to be able to keep that speed and unload fast and have that notebook now where we aren’t building a notebook is a huge deal. If you are going to try to win eight to 10 races you have to win early, so it was nice to get one out of the way. After making a statement like that you have to show where you are coming from and it felt like I was able to back that statement up and not messing around and feel like I can do that. Hopefully it doesn’t come back to bite me but I feel like I can be just as good this weekend and truthfully I feel like this is a place that fits my driving style way more than Vegas.”

WHY DOES IT FIT YOUR DRIVING STYLE? “Just slicker, more worn out. You can run right on the wall. Vegas typically we can run the middle and run to the top and last week it cost me a lot of time and position because I kept trying to work it in and it wasn’t there for whatever reason. It was a really weird race for Vegas. This place you can run the wall and there is a lot of tire fall off and I feel like it fits my style more. I only have run here once but I felt like it was one of my favorite tracks after I ran it. I feel like I have decent confidence when I come here and Cole (Custer) won here last year and I know our cars are going to be good. We ran fifth here last year. I know we will have good equipment.”

YOU WERE TIGHT WITH CHRISTOPHER BELL A FEW YEARS BACK, HOW TOUGH WAS IT WATCHING HIS CAREER JUST TAKE OFF LIKE IT DID? “I don’t think it was tough. We were really good buddies in 2016 and then when we were racing in the trucks we were battling against each other for wins and our friendship kind of turned quickly. If anything it kind of gained my confidence because I know that I can do what he is doing. To see his career progress and Cole and Reddick, all guys I feel like I am pretty good buddies with. It is cool. I have raced against those guys a lot of my career and I know I am equally as capable if I can put it all together. For me, if anything, it is a confidence booster. Especially Christopher. He is the same as me. We both grew up dirt racing and didn’t come from any money so to see a guy like him win his way to the Cup Series I feel like it creates an open door for me that if I go win a lot of races it creates that opportunity hopefully. For me, I think it was encouraging if anything.”

YOU HAVE WON A RACE EACH YEAR IN THE XFINITY SERIES, THIS YEAR IT WAS THE SECOND RACE OF THE SEASON, WHAT KIND OF CONFIDENCE BOOST DOES IT GIVE YOU? “It is huge confidence wise. I didn’t win in ARCA until halfway through the season, then we won a lot. The Truck deal I didn’t win until the very last race of the year and in Xfinity it was one of my last races my first year. I feel like I have always been a little bit of a late bloomer just because it takes me a little bit to figure out the cars and how they drive and figure out setup wise what I need. Whenever I have been able to kind of find that in every car it makes it a lot better for our team because I can direct them in practice where I need to be and not just shoot in the dark to find where we need to be. To win early I think it creates added confidence for sure and opportunity to win a lot more races. For me, this is the first year I have been able to go to the same series twice with the same crew chief and that has been huge just because we are not learning each other, we have a notebook and for example at Vegas we didn’t unload not knowing where we were going to be, we went exactly how we were last time we were there and I knew what the car was going to drive like and it made it easier from my end. I think that will continue throughout the year. Even last year if you look back, everytime we went to the track for the second time we either won or ran second. To be able to have a notebook from a previous race we were at was huge for our team and hopefully that will continue throughout the year.”

WHAT HAS THE CELEBRATION BEEN LIKE THIS WEEK? “It has been short. We got back from Las Vegas at 7 am and I was at the simulator at 9 am. Tuesday I was at the shop doing stuff and then I flew out here Wednesday morning for an appearance. I don’t get too worked up typically anyway. I am pretty laid back all the time. I don’t do a lot of celebrating. Like I said, we landed at 7 and at 9 we were all at the simulator focused on this week. Obviously we tried to take it all in while we were at the race track but now it is back to work.”

HOW DO YOU FIGHT THE SIMULATOR WITH ALL THE SEAMS ON THIS TRACK. I DON’T THINK THE SEAMS ARE BUILT IN THE SIMULATOR ARE THEY? “Yeah, the Ford simulator is pretty incredible. Truthfully, the seams work in the simulator just how they do in real life. Ford has done a really good job of figuring out how to do that stuff. I don’t think any of the other manufacturers have it so that it is possible to run the wall really well. Truthfully I have spent four or five hours working on how to get the wall to race how it actually does. When you come to a place like here or Homestead where we will be on the fence, to be able to get in the simulator and get in a rhythm and figure out what I need in the race car to run the fence that well is a huge thing. Hopefully that will correlate over to this weekend. The Ford simulator is something that has come a long way in the three or four years that I have been there. It is pretty incredible how good we have it now. It is only going to get better.”

AT WHAT POINT IN THE SEASON DO YOU FEEL LIKE IT IS SAFE TO THINK ABOUT IF YOU ARE A CHAMPIONSHIP CALIBER TEAM? “I think come July you will have a pretty good idea of where you are at. I think it kick starts after the west coast swing and I think we will have an idea of where we are at once we get to Bristol. After Bristol you have run on one of every race track with the exception of a road course. We have a lot of really good tracks for me personally coming up with Homestead and Atlanta. Phoenix is probably my worst race track and that is where we go next week and that is where the championship is at. That is going to be a huge thing for us to evaluate where we are at. With Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski running there it is good for me cause I can try to learn from those guys. For our team, we have to judge where we are based off the 7 car and 22, the guys we have to race for a championship. Hopefully we can go to Phoenix and hit on something because I have never found a feel l like there for whatever reason.”

AND YET, WE AREN’T QUITE THERE TO WHERE IT IS GOING TO GET REAL SERIOUS YET, RIGHT? “Yeah, from the outside looking in it looks like that with the big three moving up, but you never know because there could be two guys that win over half the races, you never know. I think it is hard to really say where the series is at until you get halfway through the year. Then you can evaluate where it is at. This series is so neat because there are so many different personalities and so many different teams. For example, I don’t think anybody expected Ryan Sieg to be competing for a win last week. If he is like that all year long he is going to be tough to beat all year long. I think that is what is neat about this series with the young guys that are moving up, you don’t really know where they are going to be at. You could have a guy like Harrison Burton who might have not won in the Truck Series but this Xfinity car could fit his style like with Jimmie Johnson moved up to Cup. You never know until you get kind of halfway through the year of where you are going to be at. It will be exciting to watch those guys.”

DOES THE SIMULATOR HELP YOU WITH THE BUMPS IN THE TRACK AND THE SEAL ON THE TRACK? “I think the bumps and seams and everything else. Ford has done a really good job of getting their simulator accurate and close to whatever race track we are at, but it seems like the rough tracks to me are where we are best at in the simulator. We can exaggerate those bumps how big or how little we need them to be. From a driver standpoint it is nice to know where those bumps are, especially when you come to a place like California.”

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of SpeedwayMedia.com

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Best New Zealand Online Casinos

RacingJunk.com and Leaf Racewear Safety Equipment Giveaway

Rocketplay Casino

10 deposit casinos

Best Betting Sites in Canada

bettingtop10.ca

Latest articles