CHASE BRISCOE
Michigan Advance
No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse
Event Overview
● Event: FireKeepers Casino 400 (Round 24 of 36)
● Time/Date: 2:30 p.m. EDT on Sunday, Aug. 18
● Location: Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn
● Layout: 2-mile oval
● Laps/Miles: 200 laps / 400 miles
● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 45 laps / Stage 2: 75 laps / Final Stage: 80 laps
● TV/Radio: USA / MRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Notes of Interest
● The FireKeepers Casino 400 is round No. 24 on the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series schedule, and it will mark Chase Briscoe’s fourth career start at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn. The driver of the No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang has made three previous starts at the 2-mile, D-shaped oval, with his best result coming in his first Cup start at the track in 2021 when he finished 11th. Luck has been fleeting in the Irish Hills region of Michigan since then, with Briscoe logging results of 20th and 31st in his last two Cup starts at the track.
● Briscoe enjoyed solid results at Michigan prior to racing there in the NASCAR Cup Series. He has three starts at Michigan outside of the Cup Series – one each in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and ARCA Menards Series. He scored top-10 finishes in all of them, with his best result coming in his Michigan debut when he finished second in the 2016 ARCA race, where he also led 31 laps. When Briscoe returned to Michigan in 2017, he was driving a Ford F-150 for Brad Keselowski Racing. Despite going from a Ford Fusion in ARCA to an F-150 in the Truck Series, Briscoe maintained his front-running ways by finishing ninth after leading four laps. His last Michigan start before getting promoted to the Cup Series came in the Xfinity Series in 2019 when he finished seventh in a Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas. In those three non-Cup Series starts at Michigan, Briscoe completed 100 percent of the 225 laps available.
● Joining Briscoe at Michigan is HighPoint.com, a leading provider of technology infrastructure solutions that is headquartered in Sparta, New Jersey. HighPoint has been a partner of Briscoe and Stewart-Haas since 2020 when the company supported Briscoe’s NASCAR Xfinity Series campaign, a collaboration that netted a season-best nine victories and earned Briscoe a promotion to the NASCAR Cup Series. HighPoint has climbed the NASCAR ladder with Briscoe and has helped Stewart-Haas maximize its IT investments. Said Briscoe about the partnership: “Even though we race stock cars, there’s nothing stock about what we do. The science of our cars is impressive, but the technology that goes into building our Ford Mustangs and then making them perform is even more advanced. Our IT needs are pretty complex, and we demand a lot from our technology every day, whether it’s at the shop or at the track. HighPoint provides efficiency and security. They’re more than just a sponsor – HighPoint is a partner that helps us perform.” As an IT Solutions Integrator focused on all things that connect, HighPoint helps its customers with the selection and supply of network infrastructure, mobility, collaboration, data center, security solutions and the risk-mitigated implementation and management of their technology. The company, founded in 1996, is a minority-owned business that serves markets in its nearby Tri-State Region (New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware) and the southeastern United States via its presence in Charlotte, North Carolina, as well as globally with offices in Amsterdam and London. To learn more about HighPoint’s solutions, please visit HighPoint.com.
● The story of how HighPoint.com came together with Briscoe and Stewart-Haas is one that could’ve been scripted in Hollywood. In November 2019, while walking to dinner after attending the SEMA show in Las Vegas, Kevin Briscoe was stopped by a stranger who noticed his No. 98 Stewart-Haas hat. The man was Mike Mendiburu, founder and CEO of HighPoint.com, and he said he was a big fan of Chase Briscoe, then a young NASCAR Xfinity Series driver from Mitchell, Indiana, who was driving the No. 98 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas. Kevin informed Mendiburu that Chase was his son and the two carried on a conversation like they were old friends. The two walked away with Kevin accepting Mendiburu’s business card, just in case the Briscoes ever needed anything. Months passed and Chase Briscoe was told that he may not have a ride in the No. 98 for the 2020 season if funding couldn’t be found. So, Stewart-Haas was given Mendiburu’s information and an agreement was reached for HighPoint.com to sponsor Briscoe. That chance encounter in Las Vegas led to a nine-win season in 2020. In October of that year, midway through the playoffs, Briscoe arrived at Tony Stewart’s house in Indiana for what he thought was a discussion with his team owner about whether HighPoint.com would be returning as his sponsor for the next season. The group sat down for dinner and Briscoe, joined by his parents, was informed a decision had already been made – he would be leaving the No. 98 Xfinity Series program to become the next driver of the team’s No. 14 Cup Series entry, the car Stewart himself wheeled during his driving tenure at Stewart-Haas. “I wouldn’t have a career if it wasn’t for Mike and everyone at HighPoint.com,” Briscoe said. “Going into 2020, I was going to be done. They literally came in the fourth quarter with 30 seconds left on the clock and kept things going. Without them, I think my career would’ve been over.”
Chase Briscoe, Driver of the No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang
Michigan is a fast, 2-mile, D-shaped oval. Do you feel the sensation of speed there more than you do at other tracks?
“It definitely feels like you’re hauling the mail at Michigan. Michigan is one of those places where you know you’re going fast and if you hit something, it’s not going to feel good. It definitely gets your attention.”
Michigan marks a return to a high-speed, high-banked, intermediate track after running a variety of tracks through the summer. Can the knowledge learned earlier in the year at Las Vegas – or even at places that we’ve raced at more recently like Kansas and Charlotte – be applied to Michigan, or were those races so long ago that it’s no longer applicable?
“I think you can take a little bit from those races, but Michigan is kind of different than all the other ones. It’s not got a lot of tire falloff, it’s extremely fast, it’s smoother through the corners, and the banking and things are different, so Michigan is kind of its own racetrack that stands out among the rest. You can apply some of the stuff you’ve learned at mile-and-a-half racetracks from an aero standpoint, but when you go to Michigan, all that stuff is amplified, so you’ve got to be really on your game from an aero standpoint and an engine standpoint. It has been a while since we’ve run a mile-and-a-half-style track. I feel like it’s always a fresh reset when we get to Michigan and try to figure out who’s going to be good.”
We’ve heard the adage of, “Slow down to go fast,” and that seems to be used a lot at Michigan. What does that mean and how does it apply to Michigan?
“Because you’re going so fast down the straightaway driving in, and the straightaways are so long there that you’re really just trying to set up for the exit of the corner, so sometimes when you try to start slowing down, you start backing your entry up and you start getting on the gas earlier and making the straightaway longer, and you end up going faster. It’s funny, a lot of times you see guys actually start going faster when they’re saving fuel there just because they’re making the straightaways a lot longer. I’m pretty guilty of driving in too deep there. Hopefully, this year I can do a lot better job of that.”
Oftentimes, Michigan races have come down to fuel mileage. How does a driver try to save fuel when they’re still trying to outrun other racecars?
“It’s a hard balance trying to keep those guys behind you. I think the biggest thing is just being a lot smoother on the gas pedal and not only pushing it down, but even letting up, and then just lifting earlier in the corner, getting back to the throttle a little bit later. There are a lot of things you can do, including shutting it off. Guys will even do that sometimes under green getting into the corner. There are a lot of things you can do, fuel mileage-wise, especially at the bigger racetracks like Michigan. There are a lot of games played, for sure, on the fuel side.”
Has there been a fuel-mileage race where at the end of it you’ve said, “I did a really good job of saving fuel and got us the best finish possible?’, or have there been races where you’re left scratching your head wondering what you could’ve done differently?
“Nashville earlier this year would definitely be one where I thought I was doing a really, really good job of saving and doing everything I needed to do, and somebody who had essentially three laps less fuel than me made it and I didn’t. I don’t know, it’s definitely hard. I think the big thing is you can save all you want under caution, but sometimes under green you’re burning more if you’re faster, or you’re burning less if you’re a little bit slower than some other guys. So, it’s just hard to say really what you’ve got. Nashville would certainly be the one that stands out above the rest. I thought I did a really good job under caution, and even looking back at stuff, I thought I did a really comparable job to everybody, but then you still don’t have enough at the end.”
When you’re trying to save fuel, is it easier to make a mistake because you’re sort of out of your rhythm, or do you just adapt into a new rhythm?
“I feel like you just adapt. You’re always doing something different trying to get more and more fuel saved. It’s easier to drive the car when you’re fuel saving just because you’re not pushing the car as hard, but there’s still a rhythm and a technique of trying to maximize your time while saving fuel. It’s kind of a new rhythm that you find, but it’s also constantly evolving as you’re trying to save more fuel.”
Do you put an asterisk next to a fuel-mileage win, or are you of the opinion that a win’s a win, no matter how you get it?
“They all pay the same amount of points and pay the same amount of money. For me, from a pride standpoint, it’s a little bit different if you know you lucked into one in the sense of fuel mileage. But at the same time, you still did a better job than everybody else. A win’s a win in my book. You still get to take home a trophy and enjoy victory lane, so it doesn’t really matter to me how you get them, it’s just a matter of getting them.”
No. 14 HighPoint.com 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
