Story By: MIKE ARNING / STEWART-HAAS RACING – KANNAPOLIS, NC
CHASE BRISCOE
Nashville Advance
No. 14 Rush Truck Centers/Cummins Ford Mustang Dark Horse
Event Overview
● Event: Ally 400 (Round 19 of 36)
● Time/Date: 3:30 p.m. EDT on Sunday, June 30
● Location: Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway
● Layout: 1.333-mile, concrete oval
● Laps/Miles: 300 laps/399.9 miles
● Stage Lengths: Stages 1: 90 laps / Stage 2: 95 laps / Final Stage: 115 laps
● TV/Radio: NBC / PRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Notes of Interest
● Chase Briscoe is listed at 6 feet, 1 inches tall, but if he appears 10-feet tall and bulletproof when he walks into Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway for Sunday’s Ally 400 NASCAR Cup Series race, he’s not just carrying the swagger of Travis Tritt’s 1994 hit single because he’s in the Country Music Capital of the World. Briscoe is walking tall thanks to his second-place finish last Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, and because his NASCAR future is set. With Stewart-Haas Racing’s closure at the end of the 2024 season, Briscoe was the first of its drivers to be picked up for 2025. In an announcement on Tuesday, Briscoe was named the heir to the No. 19 car at Joe Gibbs Racing, which is currently being driven by Martin Truex Jr., who will retire after the Nov. 10 season finale at Phoenix Raceway.
● Briscoe’s second-place finish at New Hampshire ended a four-race streak in which his best result was 17th (June 2 at Gateway International Raceway near St. Louis). It got him back to his front-running ways from earlier in the year, as Briscoe’s runner-up effort was his second top-five and sixth top-10 of the season. In fact, it was Briscoe’s best finish so far this year. His previous best was fifth, earned May 12 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway. And Briscoe’s second-place drive at New Hampshire was the 12th top-five of his NASCAR Cup Series career, a mark highlighted by his March 2022 win at Phoenix.
● Sunday’s Ally 400 will mark Briscoe’s fourth career NASCAR Cup Series start at Nashville. The driver of the No. 14 Rush Truck Centers/Cummins Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Stewart-Haas Racing needs the momentum from New Hampshire, as his best Cup Series finish in his three previous Nashville starts is 31st, earned twice (2021 and 2023).
● Nashville is the rare track where Briscoe has no other starts in any division of racing outside of the NASCAR Cup Series. Despite 86 NASCAR Xfinity Series starts and 29 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series starts, none have come at the 1.333-mile Nashville oval.
● While Briscoe has no other starts at Nashville beyond the NASCAR Cup Series, he does have one race under his belt in Nashville Proper. On April 9, 2016 at the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway, Briscoe finished ninth in the ARCA Menards Series race after starting from the pole. It was one of 18 top-10 finishes Briscoe earned during that 20-race season on his way to the championship, which he won by a whopping 535 points.
● The 2024 season marks the 15th year of partnership between Rush Truck Centers and Stewart-Haas Racing, and it’s a partnership that goes well beyond a design on a racecar. All Stewart-Haas racecars are transported via tractor-trailers from Rush Truck Centers, the premier service solutions provider to the commercial vehicle industry. And those tractor-trailers are supported by the RushCare Customer Support team of parts and service experts, who also provide concierge-level service for scheduling maintenance, technical support, mobile service dispatch and roadside assistance, along with help locating the nearest Rush Truck Centers dealer, and more. Rush Truck Centers is the largest network of commercial vehicle dealerships in North America with 150 locations in the United States and Ontario, Canada, and takes pride in its integrated approach to customer needs – from vehicle sales to aftermarket parts, service and body shop operations, plus financing, insurance, leasing and rental, as well as alternate fuel systems and other vehicle technologies.
● Rush Truck Centers is proud to support Wounded Warrior Project in its effort to provide free, life-changing programs and services for American’s heroes and their families. Now through Sept. 15, individuals who make a $50 tax-deductible donation to Wounded Warrior Project will be entered to win a true piece of iconic Peterbilt history – the last and only 2025 Peterbilt Model 389X ever produced. Donate at WinTheLast389.com.
● Cummins joins Rush Truck Centers for this weekend’s race at Nashville. Cummins Inc., is a global power technology leader that designs, manufactures, distributes and services a broad portfolio of power solutions. These solutions include advanced diesel, natural gas, hybrid, electric, fuel cell and other technologies. Cummins powers the future through innovations that make people’s lives better. From buses that transport kids to and from school, to the trucks that carry essentials, to construction, mining equipment, trains and ships, and critical backup power for places like data centers and hospitals, Cummins is doing it with the cleanest solutions available. Learn more at cummins.com.
Chase Briscoe, Driver of the No. 14 Rush Truck Centers/Cummins Ford Mustang Dark Horse
Nashville is concrete, but does it race like its fellow concrete tracks – Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway and Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway?
“I don’t think so. I feel like they all race kind of the same from a grip-level standpoint, they just change color during the race. I don’t feel like Nashville has the same tendencies of a Bristol or Dover, where it’s super, super black from top to bottom, maybe it’s just because it doesn’t have the banking and what not. But definitely don’t feel like it changes color like those places. From a grip-level standpoint, I can’t ever tell that much of a difference.”
Would you call Nashville an intermediate-style track, where it shares similarities with other 1.5-mile, D-shaped ovals, or is it kind of its own animal since it’s a little smaller (1.333 miles)?
“You look at a place like Iowa and it’s more of a hybrid, but I would say it leans a little more toward a short track, and Nashville is kind of the same. I feel like it’s more of a hybrid, but I would say Nashville almost leans a little bit more toward the intermediate side. So, yeah, it is unique. Things happen a touch quicker as far as the size of the racetrack, but obviously we’re going slower from a miles per hour standpoint. It’s just a unique track. The one thing about that place is it’s not like any other place we go, so it’s kind of cool every time we go there because it’s different. I’ve never really run that great there, but I enjoy going there.”
Nashville is the rare track where coming into it three years ago, you had no prior experience on it. What’s the learning curve been like where you don’t have that background experience in the NASCAR Xfinity or NASCAR Craftsman Trucks to provide a baseline?
“That first time we went there, we were really, really good. I think we were running fifth or sixth, but lost brakes and crashed, so we’ve been snake-bitten every time we’ve been there. Truthfully, I don’t think I’m at a disadvantage when we go to Nashville. I did a Goodyear tire test there one year and got a lot of really good laps. I was able to try a lot of things to find what worked for me. It’s definitely not been a great place for me results-wise, but I feel like it’s one of those tracks where the results don’t always show the speed we’ve had there. Hopefully, we can find the results to go with it.”
How has your intermediate track performance been this year? Your teammate, Noah Gragson, says it’s been one of his team’s strengths.
“I would say the 10 car (Gragson), honestly, has been probably a little bit better on intermediates, and I would say ours has been a little more hit or miss. We’ve always had really, really good speed in qualifying on the intermediates, we just haven’t raced as well, for whatever reason. It kind of just depends on the racetrack for us. Some of them I feel like we’re really, really solid. A place like Texas, I thought, we honestly could’ve won the race. Vegas, we had good speed until we got some damage. And then there have been some other ones where we weren’t in the mix all day. I don’t know what to expect going into Nashville. It’s kind of an intermediate, but it’s kind of not, so hopefully we can hit it right when we get there.”
Nashville is the home of country music. What artists do you listen to and follow?
“Eric Church is probably one of my favorites, along with Cole Swindell and Luke Combs. I definitely like going to Nashville just because it’s the Country Music Capital of the World and there’s a lot of good music to listen to. And a couple of the artists, when they come out to the racetrack, it’s really cool to see them up close. I’m just hoping to have a good run there in country music’s backyard.”