‘Fired up’ Chase Briscoe ready to continue title quest in Round of 8

CONCORD, N.C. — While Christoper Bell celebrated in Victory Lane after his must-win performance at the Charlotte Roval, Chase Briscoe stood on pit road and couldn’t stop smiling after his ninth-place finish moved him into the Round of 8. 

“This means more to me, I think, then even winning in the Cup Series at Phoenix,” Briscoe told NBC Sports, referring to his win there in March. 

“To know that you have a one-in-eight chance to win a Cup championship is a pretty unbelievable feeling. … That’s the happiest I’ve ever been after a race. Normally, I’m not too animated, like even after a win, but I was screaming in the car. I was pretty fired up.”

When he climbed out of his Stewart-Haas Racing No. 14 Ford, Briscoe, with his helmet still on, hugged and high-fived crew members.

“I feel like this is the biggest accomplishment of my career,” Briscoe said of being among the final eight drivers vying for the Cup championship. “I feel like that was the best race I’ve ever run in my career, just from start to finish. My restarts, I felt like, were the best restarts I’ve ever had in my life. I felt like I put a whole round together.”

He did.

After scoring one top-10 finish in the 21 races leading up to the second round, Briscoe has scored three consecutive top 10s. Until the playoffs began, Briscoe’s last top-10 finish was a fourth-place result in the Coca-Cola 600 in May. 

While in the midst of his top-10 drought, Briscoe said he had a talk with Greg Zipadelli, chief competition officer for Stewart-Haas Racing, about a change to make.

“I just told him, from a strategy standpoint, give me the ball, let me try to do something,” Briscoe said.

#NASCAR … This was Chase Briscoe’s reaction with his team after he advanced to the Round of 8.