Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Bristol Dirt Media Availability | Friday, April 15, 2022
Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang, posted the second-fastest practice speed in today’s first session at Bristol Motor Speedway. He gave his impressions of the track and his car between practices to members of the media.
CHASE BRISCOE, No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang – WHAT WAS THE VISIBILITY LIKE? “At the beginning it wasn’t ideal. It wasn’t perfect, but it was definitely raceable. Then there at the end it definitely got where it was pretty dusty. You couldn’t really see much in one and two, but that’s typical for dirt racing when the sun is out. When you start with the track that dry, that’s gonna happen. I don’t think the visibility will be as bad Sunday night. It’s still gonna be dusty if they start off that dry, but the sunlight is what really amplifies the dust.”
THE CHANGES TO THE TRACK. YOUR THOUGHTS ON THOSE? “I couldn’t personally tell a huge difference sitting in there, but I thought it was interesting how we were running the top versus last year we were always on the bottom. Hopefully, we can race where it’s like that and you can kind of move around and it’s not just stuck on the bottom. We’ll see.”
DO YOU KNOW WHAT CAUSED YOUR FLAT TIRE? “I don’t know. I think I just cut it truthfully. I was going fine. I didn’t feel like I was losing any grip and then i was going into the middle of three and four and next thing I knew I was almost spinning out. There were no warning signs. I know I got a little too high the corner before. I think I just cut something.”
IS THE DUST GOING TO BE A PROBLEM AND WHAT CAN BE DONE TO FIX IT? “When it’s that dry starting off, it’s gonna be an issue. The top has never really got a lot of water and that’s what you saw. When they first rolled out there for our practice they very lightly tilled it and they watered and it was pretty good. We could rip around there on the top, but as we started running that top glaze off it just gets to the dust because it’s so hard and so dry underneath. I think they could water a ton up top. If they wate it a ton, the visibility, we’re never gonna get sprayed in the corner unless we’re running the bottom. If we’re running the top, you’re just going to the fence anyway, so I think you could water it a lot more up top and that would fix a lot of the dust problem underneath, but then also put on probably a little better product from a racetrack standpoint.”
HOW MANY GROOVES DO YOU EXPECT TO RACE ON SUNDAY? “it depends on what the guy with the keys to the water truck and tiller do, truthfully. Hopefully, we have multiple groove. It was fun the first 5-10 minutes of practice. They could definitely get way more aggressive and till it deeper and water it more. Walking in here three hours before, it was already dry and dusty. When you go to a dirt track if you’re there three hours before you walk up to the racetrack and you think it’s gonna rain out and it could be 75 and sunny out. Obviously, with the windshields we can’t get that heavy, but we can definitely be way more aggressive, I think, than what it is right now. Overheating is not a problem and just how this dirt is versus the dirt that we have at a place like Eldora, it doesn’t clump up as much, so I think we could get a lot more water on it and till it deeper and be fine.”
HOW QUICKLY CAN YOU LEARN DURING PRACTICE WHEN THE TRACK IS CHANGING SO MUCH? “It’s tough because the track is constantly changing. Your visibility is constantly changing, but I will say it have more grip than I thought it was going to – like from a forward drive standpoint it definitely had way more grip and we carried way more throttle than I thought we would. I was kind of surprised by that. I’ve never driven a dirt car with this kind of suspension, so that part was interesting. I think all of us are gonna say the same thing. We’d love for them to put more water on it, till it deeper to see what it would do. I was surprised, truthfully, how well it drove on the dirt.”
DOES ANYONE FROM TRACK PREP ASK YOU WHAT WOULD MAKE A GOOD SHOW? “They haven’t asked me. I know Kyle Larson and Stenhouse, I think they knew about the banking. I didn’t know about that until a couple weeks ago, so I think they’re talking to those guys. They’re a little more prominent in the dirt world than probably I am, so I would love to give them what I think is right, but just what I think is right doesn’t make it right. I think we would all agree that we want more water and things, but I can see where they’re scared to do that too from a visibility and overheating standpoint. It’s a tough situation, but until you try and over-water it, you never really know.”
