By Caleb Whisler, Staff Writer
After moving from a full-time NASCAR Camping World Truck Series schedule to a limited schedule in the NASCAR XFINITY Series, Chase Briscoe is learning how to deal with the transition.
For 2018, Briscoe is co-running the No. 60 Roush Fenway Racing Ford Fusion with Austin Cindric and Ty Makeski in 12 races, while running the No. 98 Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing with Biagi-DenBeste for five races beginning at Talladega Superspeedway.
This weekend at Texas Motor Speedway marks Briscoe’s second NASCAR start for 2018. His first start of the year came at Atlanta Motor Speedway in late February. After his start at Atlanta, Briscoe figured out that the transition was going to provide a learning curve in handling the difference in downforce.
“I have only gotten to run one race and going into Atlanta we didn’t test so just showing up and racing was a big learning curve for me and honestly pretty humbling. The Xfinity stuff drives so much different from the trucks just from a downforce standpoint and how you get into the corner so much harder with the truck,” Briscoe stated.
“Competition wise, it is tougher at every level you go to. It always gets tougher. In the truck series there were eight or nine guys that could realistically win a race and here in Xfinity there are 15 guys that can win a race. It is tougher to run up front. The pit stops is one thing too. In the truck series, pit road is pretty spread out and you can normally get in and out pretty easy but in Xfinity it is so tight. There has been a lot of learning and I look forward to learning here this weekend.”
With one race in NASCAR in 2018 so far, Ford Performance has been working hard to get Briscoe more track time, whether it is in a sports car or NASCAR. The 23-year-old driver understands that an increase in track time will get better as the season progresses and is open to adding more races.
“It has been hard to jump in and out of different cars but I think it will make me better down the road. I am always trying to add more races, whether it is trucks, ARCA, Xfinity, whatever. It is up to Ford. Whatever they do,” Briscoe continued.
Despite the part-time schedule, Briscoe is excited to be driving for Roush-Fenway and Stewart-Haas in 2018.