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Driving Sick At The ROVAL, Chase Briscoe Grinds Way Into NASCAR Round Of 8

Jared Turner Written by Sports EditorJared Turner
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Chase Briscoe

After a nearly flawless Round of 16, Chase Briscoe endured a much bumpier ride in the NASCAR Cup Series Round of 12.

And not just bumpy in terms of performance. Briscoe drove sick on Sunday at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL.

Ultimately, though, Briscoe and his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing team took care of business. And, as a result, the first-year JGR driver remains in the championship hunt heading into the Round of 8.

What Went Wrong And What Went Right For Chase Briscoe At The ROVAL?

Entering Sunday’s elimination race at the ROVAL, Chase Briscoe didn’t need a home run to advance to the Round of 8. He basically just needed to avoid disaster.

Mission accomplished.

Competing under the weather, which for Briscoe meant dealing with some nausea behind the wheel, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver finished 14th at the ROVAL. That mediocre outcome was good enough for Briscoe to end up 19 points to the good of the cutline for moving on to the next playoff round.

“It was definitely an odd day,” said Briscoe, whose JGR Toyota qualified eighth. “We weren’t that great in the first place. Yeah, I don’t know. They gave me a little pill at the beginning. I felt way better. I was just getting so dizzy at the beginning. I’ve kind of been fighting something all week. I sound terrible, I’m sure.”

As the race wore on, Briscoe eventually started to feel more like his normal healthy self. At least for a while.

“After the first 20 laps, I was able to kind of feel fine,” he said. “There at the end, I was struggling a little bit. But I was also cruising, trying not to make a mistake. Yeah, wasn’t a super-pretty day for our Brass Pro Shop Tracker Toyota. It was good enough. And that’s all we needed to do.”

The Round Of 8 Could Stack Up Better For Chase Briscoe

Although Chase Briscoe will start the Round of 8 ranked seventh out of the eight remaining NASCAR Cup Series title contenders, he believes he has reason for optimism.

Briscoe is 18 points behind leader Denny Hamlin in the revised standings but just 14 points back of the cutline. He and Chase Elliott are actually tied in points, but Elliott is seeded higher on the basis of a tiebreaker.

Briscoe (and Elliott) are 10 points ahead of reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano, the last seed among the eight drivers left standing. But even more so than not having a huge deficit to make up, Briscoe is encouraged by the tracks in the Round of 8.

He believes they play more to his strengths than the three Round of 12 tracks — New Hampshire, Kansas and the ROVAL — where he finished 10th, fourth and 14th, respectively.

Bricoe fared considerably better in the Round of 16 — winning at Darlington, finishing second at World Wide Technology Raceway (Gateway) and coming home ninth at Bristol.

The tracks in the Round of 8 are Las Vegas, Talladega and Martinsville.

“I feel really good about it,” Briscoe said before leaving the ROVAL on Sunday. “I thought this was going to be the one round that was going to be the biggest struggle for us. New Hampshire is not a great place for me. This place is chaotic as can be.

“Next round, with the exception of Talladega, they’re kind of more traditional tracks.”

Briscoe, a two-time winner this season, is hoping to reach the Championship 4 for the first time since joining the Cup Series in 2021.

“I feel like we have a path to get there,” he said. “More than likely, we will probably have to win. But you never know with the playoffs. We will see what we can do.”

Jared Turner Written by Sports EditorJared Turner
Jared Turner is a motorsports writer who has covered NASCAR for 20 years. He has interviewed over 20 NASCAR Hall of Famers and around 100 drivers, crew chiefs, and team owners, both past and present. He has also covered the sport for FOX Sports (where he was a two-time recipient of the FOX “X” Award for “Xtraordinary” job performance), NASCAR.com, Sporting News, NASCAR Pole Position Magazine, the SPEED network, and plenty of other online and print-only publications throughout his career. Notably, Jared has penned dozens of articles for NASCAR souvenir programs, including several featured prominently in Daytona 500 keepsakes. A Virginia Press Association award winner and former member of the National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA), Jared has racked up accolades both for his writing and his academic work. He studied both Communication and Psychology at Virginia Tech, where he was permanently enshrined in Phi Beta Kappa — the nation’s oldest and most prestigious academic honor society. Jared excels at feature writing and opinion writing, much of which stems from his dedication to all levels of racing.
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