CHASE BRISCOE
Richmond Advance
No. 14 Rinnai Ford Mustang Dark Horse
Event Overview
● Event: Cook Out 400 (Round 23 of 36)
● Time/Date: 6 p.m. EDT on Sunday, Aug. 11
● Location: Richmond (Va.) Raceway
● Layout: .75-mile oval
● Laps/Miles: 400 laps/300 miles
● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 70 laps / Stage 2: 160 laps / Final Stage: 170 laps
● TV/Radio: USA / MRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Notes of Interest
● The longest season in all of professional sports is off for summer break. The NASCAR Cup Series, which began its 38-race season back on Feb. 3 with the Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum in Los Angeles and ends Nov. 10 at Phoenix Raceway, gets a two-week reprieve as broadcast partner NBC covers the Summer Olympics in Paris. Off-weekends are rare in NASCAR and back-to-back off-weekends are even rarer. Drivers and crew members are used to taking vacations during the winter when the sport is silent, but this break allows those in the industry to enjoy a warm-weather vacation without the need for a passport and a flight toward the equator. With 23 straight races in the books, the break is needed, both for recuperation and to prepare for another 14-race stretch before the Cup Series’ 76th season comes to a close.
● When teams get back from summer break, only four regular-season races remain before the 16-driver NASCAR Playoffs begin Sept. 8 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Those who have won a race in the regular season earn a playoff berth, with the remaining spots filled based on a driver’s point standing. There have been 12 different race winners thus far in 2024, leaving just four playoff spots open for a driver to get in on points. Of the winless drivers, Martin Truex Jr. is in the best shape with a 108-point margin over the top-16 cutoff. Next best is Ty Gibbs with a 42-point buffer. Chris Buescher and Ross Chastain currently hold down the last two playoff spots, albeit tenuously, with Buescher just 17 points ahead of the top-16 cutoff while Chastain is just seven points to the good. The closest driver outside of the top-16 is Bubba Wallace, who could easily usurp Chastain in a single race. Chase Briscoe is the next-closest challenger to crack the top-16, but at 83 points back, he needs all four races to secure as many points as possible. A victory, however, would punch Briscoe’s playoff ticket and squeeze a non-winning driver outside the playoff bubble.
● The Aug. 11 Cook Out 400 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway will mark Briscoe’s eighth career NASCAR Cup Series start at the track. He has three finishes of 12th or better, including a pair of 11th-place drives, the latest of which came last July. Briscoe finished 18th in the Cup Series’ most recent visit to Richmond on March 31.
● In five career NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at Richmond between 2018 and 2020, Briscoe finished outside the top-16 only once, with three results of 11th or better. His best run came in September 2019 when he started fifth and finished fifth in his No. 98 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas.
● Drivers and their crew chiefs will have options when it comes to choosing what kind of tire they want to bolt onto their racecar at Richmond. Goodyear is bringing a “prime” tire, which is a slick racing tire, and an “option” tire that is also a slick but with a softer, faster-wearing compound. The lettering on the prime tires will be yellow and the lettering on the option tires will be red. In theory, the prime tire will last longer but provide less grip, therefore compromising speed. The option tire will provide maximum grip at the beginning of a run, allowing drivers to make significantly more speed, but their high-degradation rate means that speed will be short-lived. These tire combinations were originally trialed during the NASCAR All-Star Race weekend May 18-19 at North Wilkesboro (N.C.) Speedway. Richmond marks the debut of the option tire in a regular-season, points-paying race. Here’s how it will work:
● Teams will get two sets of each tire for practice.
● A set of prime tires must be used during qualifying on Saturday. That set will then be transferred to Sunday’s race allotment.
● Teams get eight sets of sticker tires for the race – six prime sets and two option sets.
● For the race, NASCAR will not mandate when teams use their respective sets. However, all four tires must match at all times.
● There will be a single, 45-minute practice session on Saturday for all cars leading into NASCAR Cup Series qualifying.● Adorning Briscoe’s No. 14 Ford Mustang Dark Horse at Richmond is Rinnai, a manufacturer of the No. 1 selling brand of tankless gas water heaters in North America. Rinnai is the official tankless water heater of Stewart-Haas Racing, a designation that highlights Rinnai’s brand promise of “Creating a healthier way of living®,” a mantra that is at the forefront of all the company’s efforts. By continuing to offer quality products and services to homeowners and organizations, Rinnai is aiding in providing businesses and homes with energy-efficient hot water options for cleaner and healthier living.
Chase Briscoe, Driver of the No. 14 Rinnai Ford Mustang
Prior to Richmond, you’ll have back-to-back off-weekends thanks to NBC’s coverage of the Olympics. How big of a deal is that break, not just for you, but also for your crewmembers?
“It’s nice to get a break. It’s weird to get two off weekends in a row. I’ll have time to get caught up on all the honey-do list stuff that I normally don’t have time to do, and it’ll be nice to be at home without responsibilities for a week or two and to be able to just hang out. I don’t think there’s ever been a time where I’m home three days straight throughout the season, but those off weeks I’ll be home for five, six, seven, eight days in a row. So it’ll be nice to just be home and get to be a dad and a husband for a couple of days and kind of live a normal life, to a certain extent, and just wake up and not have to leave. It’s always a nice break and a way to recharge your batteries in the middle of the season.”
Formula One has a mandatory two-week summer shutdown, where no work can be done in the race shop, as it’s monitored by the FIA. Would you like to see something similar in NASCAR?
“I’m all about taking a little bit of a break and I think it’d be a cool thing, too, if it was actually a full, total shutdown where you couldn’t do anything. People in other sports don’t realize how long our season is. It’s really from the first weekend of February to the first weekend in November and a lot of times you only get one weekend off. And even in the offseason, you’re kind of working more than you are in the season. It would definitely be nice to have a summer break.”
You have this two-week break where you’re not at the track, but how hard is it to turn your mind off from racing?
“I think it’s hard the first couple of days. Like Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, it’s a little challenging. But especially this year with it being two weeks off, it’ll be a lot easier that second week to kind of forget everything and then get back into the groove that following week. I don’t think it’s hard, especially if you’re busy and doing stuff at home and what not. The first couple of days, I feel like it’s hard to totally forget about it, but once you get to Thursday and you know you don’t have to worry about going to a race that weekend or packing a bag to go away that weekend, it’s easy to forget about it altogether.”
You last raced at Richmond on March 31, which was more than four months ago. How has the competition changed since then?
“I definitely think it’s gotten more cut-throat as the year goes on. Everybody’s stuff gets better, everybody’s tighter at the beginning of the year, then everybody’s a little more spread out and what not. As we get to the tail end of the season, it’s just going to get harder and harder to win just because more and more people are really good. Our stuff definitely has changed a lot since we first raced at Richmond this year, but so has everybody else’s. We’ll just have to try to improve on what we had there the last time.”
Have some of the more recent short tracks, or even flat tracks, like New Hampshire and Iowa, provided some insight as to how you’ll unload at Richmond?
“I think a little bit. Richmond’s a little bit unique just because the tire wear is so significant compared to all those other racetracks that are similar to it in size and banking. It’s hard to say if you really can take a whole lot from any other racetracks just because Richmond is kind of its own unique beast because of its abrasive surface and the tire wear that it has.”
Is there a difference in how Richmond races between the first race in the still comfortable air of spring compared to its second race in the heat of the summer?
“At that place, the grip level definitely changes a lot just based on the temperature. It’s probably one of the more temperature-sensitive racetracks. It’s slick even when it’s 50 degrees outside, and it’s really slick when it’s 85-plus outside. For me, I enjoy when it’s hotter and slicker there because I feel like you have more options and your car’s driving worse and I just enjoy that more. Hopefully when we go there it’s hot and slick and we can move all over the racetrack and have a lot of fun with it. I definitely feel like the tracks I run better at are typically the slicker and worn-out ones. Richmond’s one of those tracks where, when it’s cold outside, you’re married to the bottom of the racetrack, whereas when it’s hot, you can kind of move around and run up by the wall and do a lot more stuff with your racecar. I definitely enjoy it more when it’s hot and slick there.”
You’ll have the prime tire and the option tire at Richmond, just like what you trialed in the All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway. What was it like at the All-Star Race with the option tire? What kind of strategy went into it, and how do you think it will apply at Richmond?
“There’s never been a points race where we’ve had multiple option tires. It’s going to be a new component of strategy that we’ve never seen before, just trying to understand when to put on the option tire or stick with the prime tire. North Wilkesboro is a little unique in the sense of, with it being newly repaved, it didn’t really chew up tires a whole lot, where Richmond will certainly chew up tires. I think there’s going to be a lot of strategy involved. The new tires, or the option tires, will probably be extremely fast for probably 10 or 15 laps and then get really, really slow. It’ll be interesting, and the crew chiefs will certainly earn their money on that day, for sure.”
Do guys with a dirt background have an advantage at Richmond as they’re used to running different tire compounds?
“I don’t know if the dirt guys have an advantage. If it’s slick, then maybe a little bit, but honestly I think it plays into the pavement late model guys’ hands a lot more just because they’re really good at saving tires and they know how to do that, where sprint car guys typically struggle with that. I think guys like Josh Berry, William Byron, Denny Hamlin, guys who are just really good at understanding where the tire is and the life of it. I feel like sprint car guys kind of struggle with that a lot of the time just because we don’t have a lot of experience doing it.”
Will having an option tire at Richmond make for a better race?
“I think it’s a step. We’ve kind of been trying everything else and nothing’s really seemed to move the needle. I do think this is another thing to throw at it to see if it makes a difference. I also think you’ll see more comers and goers just from having different tires. At North Wilkesboro, there wasn’t a major difference, but also tires didn’t really wear out there, either. I do think it’ll make a difference and I’m curious to see what it’s like. Practice is going to be interesting to see how it plays out, and I think after practice you’ll have a lot better idea of what to expect for the race.”
No. 14 Rinnai Team Roster
Primary Team Members
Driver: Chase Briscoe
Hometown: Mitchell, Indiana
Crew Chief: Richard Boswell
Hometown: Friendship, Maryland
Car Chief: J.D. Frey
Hometown: Ferndale, California
Engineer: Mike Cook
Hometown: Annapolis, Maryland
Spotter: Joey Campbell
Hometown: Berlin, Connecticut
Over-The-Wall Members
Front Tire Changer: Shayne Pipala
Hometown: Frankfort Square, Illinois
Rear Tire Changer: Dakota Ratcliff
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Tire Carrier: Jon Bernal
Hometown: Holland, Michigan
Jack Man: Kapil Fletcher
Hometown: Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Fuel Man: Corey Coppola
Hometown: Bluefield, West Virginia
Road Crew Members
Underneath Mechanic: Stephen Gonzalez
Hometown: Mooresville, North Carolina
Interior Mechanic: Trevor Adams
Hometown: Plymouth, Wisconsin
Tire Specialist: Keith Eads
Hometown: Arlington, Virginia
Shock Specialist: Brian Holshouser
Hometown: Charlotte, North Carolina
Engine Tuner: Jon Phillips
Hometown: Jefferson City, Missouri
Transporter Co-Driver: Todd Cable
Hometown: Shelby, North Carolina
Transporter Co-Driver: Dale Lackey
Hometown: Taylorsville, North Carolina
