By David Morgan, Associate Editor
SPEEDWAY, Ind. – To say that Chase Briscoe would be ecstatic to win Sunday’s Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway would be an understatement.
Briscoe, a native Hoosier who drives the No. 19 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing, noted on Friday that a win at the famed 2.5-mile speedway, steeped in tradition dating back to the early 1900’s for open wheel cars and for more than 30 years for stock cars, would be the ultimate victory for a driver that grew up just down the road in Mitchell, Indiana.
“It would mean everything. I would put this race over the Daytona 500 or any other race,” said Briscoe. “If there is one race – you could take away every other win that I’ve had in my career away – if I could just have one Brickyard 400, I would be happy and content. This is the one race I want to win more than any other.
“I’ve put a ton of pressure on myself to come here and try to win. Every time you don’t win that’s one less opportunity. You don’t really have a ton, when you think about the big scheme of things. You only get to run here maybe 15 times in your career, so to try to win one is pretty difficult to do. It would mean a lot.”
Though he has won a race at Indianapolis before, scoring a NASCAR O’Reilly Series victory in 2020 on the IMS road course, being able to do it on the oval in the Cup Series would be on a whole new level.
“I was able to win here in 2020 in Xfinity, but it was during COVID. What makes Indy so special is all of my family and friends being here and fans, and I didn’t get to experience that with any of them. It was just completely empty. Hopefully, I can win this weekend or at least at some point in my career. It would be the highlight of my career for sure,” Briscoe added.
With the Toyotas expected to be the manufacturer to beat on Sunday, Briscoe will start from 11th place on the notoriously hard to pass track, but should he be able to work his way forward, Briscoe should be among the contenders.
In this race a year ago, Briscoe started from pole and led 34 laps before fading to 18th at the finish.
And if he is really able to pull it off and join the list of native Hoosiers to win here at Indianapolis, the celebration will be one for the books.
“I’m doing it all. I’m climbing the fence. I’m kissing the bricks, I’m going in the grandstands,” Briscoe said. “It might take them an hour and a half just to get me to victory lane. I’ll be doing all of it. Hopefully it happens. It would be entertaining. It would be long.
“I’m just warning you. There might two, three chapters of victory lane. It will be fun.”
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