Chase Briscoe left fearing for his career as another bad SHR season could jeopardize NASCAR future

Last season, in 2023, Chase Briscoe didn’t manage to cross the finish line first even once, and ended up in the 30th spot in the points tally. But if you turn back the clock to just a year before, you’ll see a whole different picture. Briscoe not only grabbed a win but also cruised into the playoffs in 2022, securing a respectable ninth place in the standings. However, it looks like this Stewart-Haas Racing wheelman is feeling a bit on edge about his future as of now.

In a recent heart-to-heart with Dustin Long, Briscoe shared his thoughts, saying he feels like his entire career is balancing on a knife-edge, hinging on how things pan out this upcoming season. He’s under no illusions – another year without any laurels could really put his career in a tight spot.

Chase Briscoe has his eyes set on 2024, seeing it as a make-or-break season

Chase Briscoe, without a shadow of a doubt, is a master at beating the odds. He snagged a whopping nine victories in Xfinity, surpassing the eight-win mark that he needed to step up to the Cup, making him only the second driver to pull off an eight-win Xfinity season in the past 35 years. Back in 2018, when it seemed like he was at a crossroads, Briscoe clinched the inaugural Charlotte Roval Xfinity race, which paved the way for a full-time Xfinity ride the following year. He’s a driver who admits that pressure is his fuel.

Briscoe himself put it candidly, “I feel like, for whatever reason, I have always performed better under pressure.” But this year, the story’s a bit different. With only four top-5 finishes and eight in the top 10 in the 2023 season, it wasn’t a disaster by any means, but when you’re driving for Tony Stewart’s team, the bar’s set pretty high. Briscoe knows it too.

In a candid chat with Dustin Long, Briscoe shared with NBC Sports, “I feel like this is one of those years where it’s really going to determine kind of how my future lays out. If I go out this year and have success and contending for wins and running up front, this is one of those years where for the future, like contracts, everything could totally change. Where If I have another bad year like last year, it could totally change the trajectory of my career.”

Feeling the heat to step up his game, just like his Xfinity days, Briscoe remains hopeful, saying, “Kind of the same thing I feel this year. I’ve got to not make something up — I feel like everything I said is very valid and true — but to some people it probably doesn’t as much as what I feel like it means. Kind of the same with the (win declaration in 2020). Did I probably have to win eight races to move to Cup realistically? Probably not. I knew at the same time if I won only two races I probably wasn’t going to Cup.”

This self-doubt might also have grown stronger owing to his recent stumble at his ninth Chili Bowl outing, where he was pretty hard on himself for not delivering the goods.

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Briscoe is kicking himself over his recent Chili Bowl performance

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Behind the wheel of the midget car, Chase Briscoe had a promising lead-up to the A-Main race in the Chili Bowl event. He made a stunning comeback in the prelims, zooming from 12th to 4th. But his luck was short-lived. A sudden wrench in race conditions saw him slipping back to 21st place in his first main event in six years. Talking with Frontstretch, Stewart’s rising star opened up about his experience and the high hopes he had.

Briscoe laid it out plain and simple, “Starting position would have helped, obviously. Just wasn’t that great in the feature. The track was kind of different than anything we really ran on all week, at least for us. So, yeah just kind of missed it. “I didn’t do a very good job either.”

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One major hiccup in the main event was Briscoe’s starting spot. Missing out on a top 10 seed for the pole shuffle already put a dent in his chances. Kicking off from 19th place just piled on the misery for the Stewart-Haas Racing driver. In the unforgiving dirt racing track, where overtaking opportunities are rare, clawing your way up from the back of the pack is no small feat.

To really up his game in these events, Briscoe might need to spend more time in the midget racing circuit. But with the Cup Series races looming on the horizon, juggling both will be like walking a tightrope.