In the week leading up to NASCAR’s final regular season race at Daytona, all the attention has been on NASCAR’s reigning Most Popular Driver, Chase Elliott. After missing a total of 7 races this season Elliott, the 2020 champion, needs nothing short of a win on order to avoid missing this year’s Playoffs.
Elliott isn’t the only driver named Chase who is looking for a win in order to make the Playoffs. Friday, Stewart-Haas Racing driver Chase Briscoe scored his second career pole and will line up alongside this SHR teammate Aric Almirola.
The pole win for Briscoe was made even more special as it was the first time his wife and son, 2-year old Brooks, were present to celebrate. It’s another memory for the family a day after they made more memories taking Brooks to nearby Disney world.
“It’s cool,” Briscoe said. “For me, I’ve never been able to experience any kind of success with them at the racetrack. During the Xfinity stuff it was during COVID. Obviously, he wasn’t around yet, but me and Marissa were able to experience that, and then my first Cup win neither of them were there, so I haven’t won anything since then, so it’s cool for them to both be able to be here and even after qualifying just walk down pit lane with both of them has been cool to make those memories.
“We obviously made memories yesterday going to Disney and things like that, but it just really cool to do it at Daytona of all places and to have them here and hopefully that’s the first thing we can celebrate this weekend. Regardless, it’s super special, it’s humbling to be able to do that with them here and just blessed to be able to have my family be able to go to work with me and then let them experience those things with me.”
Briscoe has won, last season at the spring Phoenix race, but like Elliott he won’t make the Playoffs without a win this season.
The final opportunity for both Chase’s comes Saturday night at Daytona.
“I feel like I’ve not done the greatest job the last few superspeedway races, but this race last year with the rain coming I felt like I was in a really good spot and made an aggressive move, took the lead and then got spun out a corner later and almost flipped over, “he said referencing last year’s summer Daytona race. “At least we were in the lead, but I feel like I’ve not done a very good job ever since I got to Cup of just being aggressive the whole race.
“In the Xfinity car, I always felt I was on the aggressive side. I was always the one trying to make moves, take my run somewhere, and in the Cup deal I just haven’t done that. I just, for whatever reason, been that aggressive and I felt like that race last year was really the only superspeedway race I’ve been super aggressive. That and the Daytona 500 and those are the two times I was up front, so I just have to be super aggressive again and that will start tomorrow starting on the pole.”
Should he pull it off and win his way into the Playoffs he’s fully aware it would be quite a surprise to all.
“I feel like it would be an upset,” he said. “I’d have to be the lowest point guy to ever make the playoffs. I think we’re like 31st in points right now, so it would definitely shake up the playoff field. I feel like we would be a 16 seed going into it and everybody loves an underdog, so I love to always feel like my back is up against the wall, even going back to last year’s playoffs.
“I think everybody, probably nine out of 10 people had us getting knocked out the first round and we were five laps away from making it to Phoenix, so I would love to obviously win tomorrow and get in the playoffs. We’d be at a huge deficit, but, like I said, we would be a 16 seed and it’s happened before that the 16 seed has beat the 1 seed, so hopefully we can get in tomorrow and cause a little ruckus.”
Elliott will start 23rd.
Starting Lineup
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.