Very little had gone wrong during Chase Briscoe’s dream 2020 NASCAR Xfinity Series season.
The driver of the No. 98 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford collected nine victories and earned a promotion to the No. 14 SHR NASCAR Cup Series car next year.
But the season ended in disappointment on Saturday when Briscoe finished ninth at Phoenix Raceway and dropped to fourth among the four drivers competing for the series title.
Briscoe led 41 laps and won the first stage of the race, but the handling on his car deteriorated as the light faded and the track cooled.
“It was just a frustrating day,” Briscoe said. “This is by far not my best race track. We started the race and, for me, just leading laps here I was like, ‘Wow, this is different.’ I was just so loose at the beginning of the race, and as the night came, I was just getting freer and freer. I don’t know how many times I about wrecked into (Turn) 1 and would end up hitting the wall.
“I’ve got to do a lot better job coming here. There’s something about this place that I just really struggle at, so I’ve got a lot of homework to do. It’s definitely frustrating to finish fourth in the championship after the year we had, but, overall, to win nine races it’s been a phenomenal year.”
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.
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