Chase Briscoe Eyes Return to Pocono Victory Lane in Sunday’s HighPoint.com 400
- Event: HighPoint.com 400 (Round 21 of 36)
- Time/Date: 2:30 p.m. EDT on Sunday, July 23
- Location: Pocono (Pa.) Raceway
- Layout: 2.5-mile triangle
- Laps/Miles: 160 laps / 400 miles
- TV/Radio: USA / MRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), is looking to continue righting the ship at a track where he has seen previous success with crew chief Richard Boswell and HighPoint.com.
As the NASCAR Cup Series closes in on the end of the regular season, Briscoe is in a must-win situation as he looks to carry the blue-and-white HighPoint.com Ford Mustang into the playoffs. Pocono (Pa.) Raceway, the site of Sunday’s HighPoint.com 400, could very well be the place where the young driver makes it happen as he’s visited victory lane at the 2.5-mile triangle twice – once in the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2020 and once in the ARCA Menards Series in 2016.
“I have always really liked Pocono and it just kind of fits my driving style,” Briscoe said. “I like a challenge and you get that there. Your car is never going to drive perfectly, it’ll likely be bad in one of the corners and you just have to deal with it and work on getting it right in the other two and on the straightaways.”
Sunday’s race will also serve as a homecoming for primary sponsor HighPoint.com, which has been with Briscoe and SHR since 2020. Pocono Raceway announced late last week that it would celebrate its 50th anniversary of NASCAR racing with HighPoint taking on the naming rights of the 160-lap Cup Series race that takes place just 90 minutes west of the company’s center of operations.
“This is a natural evolution of our relationship with Pocono and it was only a matter of time before we took things to the next level,” said Mike Mendiburu, CEO of HighPoint. “It is truly an honor to support such a great event with our Tri-State-area neighbors and fans, as well as our highly valued clients, partners and team members. For us, foundational to partnership is aligning with people and organizations that prioritize similar core values as HighPoint, and the good folks at Pocono Raceway certainly set a high bar in that regard.”
The partnership allows the global provider of Technology Infrastructure and Professional and Managed Services the opportunity to host clients, employees and family at an event bearing its name, at its home track. Pocono is located less than 65 miles from HighPoint’s global headquarters in Sparta, New Jersey. The company also has a large footprint in Charlotte, North Carolina, London, and Amsterdam.
Sunday’s race marks Briscoe’s fourth Cup Series start at Pocono, but the team hopes to find truth in the old adage good things come in threes. The 28-year-old driver has reunited with Boswell in his third season as a Cup Series driver. The two worked together for three years in the Xfinity Series prior to Briscoe’s promotion and dominated with nine wins in their third season together on the No. 98 team. Taking the HighPoint.com car to victory lane in the HighPoint.com 400 at HighPoint’s home track for Briscoe’s third Pocono win would be a fitting next step in the progression of the No. 14 team with Boswell at the helm.
“We have to win and that does open the door for some strategy,” Briscoe said. “Pocono is a great place for that. You can kind of get off sequence and try some things to get track position, and then just keep it up front. We’ve just got to go there and win, there is no other plan, and we need to do that for HighPoint, as well, to get their in car in victory lane for their race. There would be no better outcome.”
The track known as “The Tricky Triangle” has a tendency to trip up drivers. The rough bumps in the Tunnel Turn, and the long, fast front straightaway leading into the first of only three turns creates what Briscoe describes as an uncomfortable race.
“You have to get used to being really uncomfortable, and you have to adapt and change things as the race goes on,” he said. “You’re constantly searching, trying to find whatever it is that you need to make your car just a little bit better in one small part of the track. Every little thing is critical as far as getting your timing right, your momentum right. If you lose time in the wrong area because you’re trying to pass somebody and don’t clear him, you lose a lot more than you would somewhere else.”
This season, Briscoe has racked up a total of three top-five finishes and five top-10. His most recent top-10 occurred Monday, when he put in a valiant effort to secure a 10th-place result at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon. It was his best finish at the track known as “The Magic Mile,” and the best result for the No. 14 team since a fourth-place run in the non-points-paying NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro (N.C.) Speedway on May 21 – the most recent outing for the HighPoint.com Ford Mustang.
