Chase Briscoe met with media members at Phoenix Raceway in November 2022 and declared that he needed to find some sense of consistency in 2023. 12 weeks into his third full-time campaign, he has made significant progress toward that goal.
The driver of the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford Mustang has increased his average finish from 17.3 to 16.8 in the first 11 races of the 2023 Cup Series season. He has also posted four top-10 finishes and three top-fives, headlined by a fourth-place finish in the Geico 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.
Briscoe has seen signs of progress during the early stages of the 2023 Cup Series season. he has performed better overall from the green flag until the checkered flag. Though there have also been moments of struggle for him and his team.
“I would say the start of the season, we were consistent in the sense of not getting into incidents or making anything worse,” Briscoe said during a media session at Kansas Speedway. “We just weren’t very fast up ’til last week. Three, four, or five weeks prior to that we were really consistent, running up front kind of week in and week out.
“Last week, we were kind of back to where we were for the beginning of the year. So hopefully, we can kind of turn that back around, but I do think that we’ve been just more consistent as a team. I think a lot of that does come from that playoff experience last year and just trying to build off of that.”
The West Coast Swing Was a Turning Point
GettyChase Briscoe prepares for practice at Dover Motor Speedway.
The first three races of the 2023 Cup Series season were not particularly kind to Briscoe. He crashed in the Daytona 500 and finished 35th. He then finished 20th at Auto Club Speedway and 28th at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
The result of this slow start is that he was 31st in points heading toward the final race of the West Coast swing. This is when Briscoe essentially turned his season around. He scored a seventh-place finish and moved up to 25th in the championship standings.
Briscoe has been more consistent since the trip to Phoenix Raceway while gaining some crucial points. This has helped him move up to 16th in the standings, which puts him right on the playoff bubble entering the AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway. He has also achieved this while dealing with a broken finger on his left hand.
“I mean, I’m kind of happy with where we’re at, truthfully,” Briscoe said. “Man, if you would have asked me after Phoenix — I think we were 31st in points, and now we’re on the bubble.
“So we’ve made a lot of ground, but if we could win a race, that obviously makes life way easier. But I do think we need to maximize the points probably the most we can, especially these next two or three weeks.”
Certain Tracks Still Stand Out as Pain Points
GettyChase Briscoe (front) races at Sonoma in 2022.
Maximizing points is Briscoe’s focus in the immediate future, but this a task more easily accomplished at certain tracks on the schedule. He knows that he can better contend at short tracks than he can at intermediates.
The next few races on the schedule do not particularly fit into the favorable category for Briscoe based on his comments. Kansas Speedway is May 7, Darlington Raceway is May 14, and Charlotte Motor Speedway is May 28. All are intermediate tracks.
June will also provide some potential pain points. First up is World Wide Technology Raceway, a track where Briscoe finished 24th in 2022. He will then head to a road course in Sonoma Raceway, where he previously ran 13th, before heading to another intermediate track in Nashville Superspeedway.
Contending for the win could be more difficult for Briscoe and the No. 14 team, but he will still try if the opportunity arises. However, the bigger focus will be on simply maximizing every opportunity to keep himself in contention for the playoffs.
“I think right now — I mean, we’re still gonna try to win the race, honestly — but we really need to maximize on our points,” Briscoe said. “And even if you’re having a bad day, kind of keep that in the back of your mind. Kind of treat it like the playoffs. If it’s a bad day, don’t make the bleeding any worse.”
Comments
Inside Chase Briscoe’s Continued Progress Toward 2023 Goals