The unique circumstances that makes a NASCAR playoff underdog "scary"

When Chase Briscoe pulled off an upset in the regular season finale by winning the Southern 500, it completely changed the outlook within his Stewart-Haas Racing organisation.

The four-car team's 320+ employees face an uncertain future following the decision of co-owners Tony Stewart and Gene Haas to shut down at the end of the 2024 season, but Briscoe's unexpected surge into the playoffs have provided renewed impetus.

"One of my guys said it best the other day, 'If we didn’t win that race, everybody was already counting down the days to the end of the season,'" reflected Briscoe, who will replace the retiring Martin Truex Jr at Joe Gibbs Racing next season.

"Now, they’re so excited and we’re just counting down the days to the next race. It’s changed the entire atmosphere at the shop, the morale, people are excited again, and that’s something that as a company we hadn’t had in a couple of years, so it’s pretty cool to be the guy who gets to bring that to the shop."

The SHR driver was not a favourite entering the playoffs and it seemed like his title shot was going to be over rather quickly after he was unable to avoid the crashed Kyle Larson in the Atlanta playoff opener. But at Watkins Glen, Briscoe and his #14 Ford once again showed they are not to be underestimated.

The 29-year-old collected 12 stage points and finished higher than any other playoff driver in sixth. Managing to stay clear of all the trouble that tripped up several expected contenders, Briscoe was the only playoff driver inside the top ten.

He had entered Watkins Glen at the very bottom of the standings, 21 points out from the cutoff and facing a difficult climb. But in one race, he jumped five drivers including Truex and Denny Hamlin and he is now six points up entering Bristol where the Round of 12 is now a distinct possibility.

Securing his spot in the playoffs with victory at Darlington has imbued Briscoe and SHR with confidence

Photo by: Danny Hansen / NKP / Motorsport Images

"The confidence that comes along with that, knowing if we can win the Southern 500, then why can’t we win this week at Bristol?" he said.

"I definitely feel like our team as a whole has way more confidence. We kind of walk with more swagger. We just feel better about it.

"And to do it the way we did it, beating Kyle Larson, beating Kyle Busch, it’s not like we lucked into a win. We literally ran top-three from mile one to mile 500. Just all that kind of combines itself into having a lot of confidence, and I certainly feel like we have that right now."

"Now we know that we can win, and to do it the way we did it, the confidence and the momentum that comes with that is unique"
Chase Briscoe

Four drivers will be cut from the title fight this weekend at the iconic short track, and as with any elimination race, Briscoe says "you just know that you have to do everything perfectly". As at Watkins Glen, avoiding dramas will be crucial.

"You can’t have any big mishaps, you can’t have a bad night on pit road, and you can’t make a big mistake on the racetrack," he said.

"At the end of the day, you’re probably not going to win every elimination race, even if you do everything perfectly. But if you do everything perfectly that night, you can go to bed and hang your hat on the fact that you did everything you could.

"That’s the biggest thing going into an elimination race — not eliminating yourself and just putting together the most solid night you can from start to finish."

Briscoe says the knowledge that his team has nothing to lose will help its case in the coming weeks.

"No other team can compare to what we’re going through, and no other team has the emotions that we do, so I think that’s what makes us so scary," he declared.

Briscoe knows that avoiding carnage will be crucial at Bristol

Photo by: Lesley Ann Miller / Motorsport Images

"We have a lot on our shoulders and there’s a lot of pride that comes along with that. We’re just a unique race team right now. And every other team in the playoffs, they’re trying to figure out how to make four cars fast in the playoffs.

"Hendrick’s got four cars in the playoffs, JGR has four cars in the playoffs, our place has four cars, but only one of them is in the playoffs, so all of the focus is on the 14 car, and I think that makes it a little easier for us.

"I have three team-mates out there who are going to do essentially everything they can to help me on the racetrack, and they can race the other guys a little bit harder than they would race me.

"Then even just preparing the racecars, we can take everything, the best of the best from each race car, personnel, whatever it may be, and apply it to our car. So I definitely think there’s an advantage to being in the position that we’re in."

While Briscoe may be regarded as one of the underdogs on his second playoff appearance, having reached the Round of 8 in 2022, he doesn't see it that way.

"I don’t consider ourselves to be an underdog," he said. "Some people might’ve already written us off, but for myself and our entire race team, we all feel like we can win it all.

"That’s probably crazy from a guy who didn’t look like he was even going to be a part of it, but the way we look at it is if we can win the Southern 500, we can win probably any race throughout the entire season.

"Now we know that we can win, and to do it the way we did it, the confidence and the momentum that comes with that is unique and something that I don’t think any other race team can match right now."