NASCAR Opportunity Pairs Up-and-Comer With His Racing Idol
Chase Briscoe adds five NASCAR Xfinity Series races to his schedule by signing with legendary driver Tony Stewart.
As a Ford developmental driver, Chase Briscoe is climbing his way up the NASCAR racing ladder. After a full year in NASCAR Camping World Truck Series competition that saw him win a race, make the playoffs, claim series Rookie of the Year honors, and get voted Truck Series Most Popular Driver in 2017, Briscoe’s in the NASCAR Xfinity Series for 2018 and recently added races to this year’s docket, courtesy of his racing idol Tony Stewart.
“He’s one of my idols,” Briscoe said, as quoted by a Stewart-Haas Racing press release. "To get the opportunity to drive a Ford for his race team is beyond my wildest dreams. I can’t wait to get into the No. 98 Ford Performance Ford Mustang at Bristol and the other races they have slated for me. I realize what an opportunity Ford and Stewart-Haas Racing have given me.”
Briscoe was already slated to run 12 Xfinity Series races this season from behind the wheel of the No. 60 Roush Fenway Racing Ford, sharing that seat with Austin Cindric and Ty Majeski, but the more recent five-race deal with SHR brings Briscoe’s 2018 Xfinity schedule to 17 races, beginning with the Fitzgerald Glider Kits 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee on April 14. For SHR, he’ll drive the No. 98 Ford fielded by a joint effort between Stewart-Haas Racing and Biagi-DenBeste Racing.
Aside from Stewart and Briscoe both being from Indiana, the latter also looks up to the former as a result of their histories in sprint car racing. Briscoe’s family has participated in sprint car racing for 40 years, and Stewart has been involved in that form of motorsport as a competitor and series and car owner.
Briscoe began his racing career at age 13 in dirt sprint cars.
“If you grow up in Indiana racing sprint cars and you want to make a name for yourself in NASCAR, I don’t think there is anyone better to be around than Tony Stewart,” Briscoe said.
Briscoe will drive for his idol at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama on April 28, Charlotte Motor Speedway in North Carolina on May 26, again at Charlotte on the ‘roval’ road course-oval hybrid track on September 29, and October 20 at Kansas Speedway.
