By Matt Courson, Staff Writer
BRISTOL, Tenn. — Chase Briscoe turned his first laps ever in a Monster Energy Cup Series race car during final Cup practice on Friday at Bristol Motor Speedway, substituting for Matt Tifft in the No. 36 Ford.
Briscoe was called over to drive the Front Row Motorsports car after it was reported that Tifft was feeling under the weather. Briscoe says he is unsure of what symptoms Tifft is feeling.
“It was kind of a last-minute deal,” Briscoe said. “I wasn’t expecting to do this, hate that it’s under the circumstances that it’s in. I wasn’t mentally prepared for this for sure.
“It’s a unique opportunity, it was always a dream of mine to turn laps in a Cup car and it’s pretty cool to do it here at Bristol, so I don’t know if I’m going to race or not, but just trying to help these guys out and keep the car clean and just turn laps.”
Briscoe says that the extra track time will help him when he climbs back into his primary ride at Stewart-Haas Racing later Friday for qualifying and the Food City 300 in the Xfinity Series.
“That’s one of the best things about it, they reapplied the PJ1 and going into qualifying, I’ve got kind of an idea of where it’s at. Yesterday, we never got up to the top groove and in Cup practice guys were running the top. I think it’ll be beneficial, but hopefully it will help. It didn’t hurt.”