Chase Briscoe is 55/1 to win Phoenix Finale

 

CHASE BRISCOE Phoenix Season Finale Advance No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing

Event Overview

● Event: Season Finale 500k (Round 36 of 36) ● Time/Date: 3 p.m. EST on Sunday, Nov. 5 ● Location: Phoenix Raceway ● Layout: 1-mile oval ● Laps/Miles: 312 laps, 312 miles ● Format: Stage 1: 60 laps / Stage 2: 125 laps / Final Stage: 127 laps ● TV/Radio: NBC / MRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Notes of Interest

● Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), returns to Phoenix Raceway for the final race of the 2023 season. Phoenix is the site of Briscoe’s first Cup Series win, earned in the March 2022 event, which was the first at Phoenix in the NextGen car. Since then, the 28-year-old driver has finished no worse than seventh at the 1-mile oval.   ● Briscoe heads to Phoenix with momentum for a strong finish to the season. Last weekend at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway, he started third and finished fourth to earn his fourth consecutive top-10 at the paperclip-shaped half-mile track. Briscoe’s fourth-place result was his best at Martinsville and his second-straight top-five there. It was also his first top-five since the April 23 race at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.   ● In just his third fulltime Cup Series season, Briscoe reunited with crew chief Richard Boswell midway through the season and earned his second-career pole at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway in August. The duo went on to earn four top-10 finishes and the aforementioned top-five at Martinsville to add to Briscoe’s season total of four top-fives and eight top-10s.   ● Briscoe has four career NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at Phoenix and each resulted in top-10 finishes. His best is sixth, scored twice – March 2019 and 2020. He also made one NASCAR Truck Series appearance there in November 2017, when he started eighth and finished fourth in his Ford F-150, securing his 13th career Truck Series top-10.

Chase Briscoe, Driver of the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

Sum up the 2023 season for the No. 14 team. “This year has been really trying for the No. 14 team. We had some really low moments and we’ve come back from that. I think we’re a lot stronger for it and, even if the results don’t show it, we are on the right track to finding the success that’s expected of us. There is still a long way to go. Everyone in this sport is always pushing and looking for new ways to find speed. We have to keep working to match that and eventually get ahead. It’s a never-ending fight to get better and we’ll keep working until we’re back to running up front every week and getting wins.”   Phoenix is a great opportunity for the team to finish the season on a high note. Though the season hasn’t been what you hoped for, is it easier to go into the finale with confidence knowing you’ve performed well at Phoenix? “Yeah, that confidence will always be a little greater when we head to Phoenix. We’ve done well there, and we know what we need to do to be up front. There are still so many things that have to go right, but we have to keep ourselves in position to have that opportunity to do well. If you look at last week at Martinsville, we were up front to start the race and we slipped back a little, but if we hadn’t fought to stay in the top-10, there was no way we’d come out with our best finish. We know we can run up front, we just can’t do anything to take ourselves out of that.”

Chase Briscoe is 30/1 to win at Martinsville

CHASE BRISCOE Martinsville Advance No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing

Event Overview

● Event: Xfinity 500 (Round 35 of 36) ● Time/Date: 2 p.m. EDT on Sunday, Oct. 29 ● Location: Martinsville (Va.) Speedway ● Layout: .526-mile oval ● Laps/Miles: 500 laps/263 miles ● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 130 laps / Stage 2: 130 laps / Final Stage: 240 laps ● TV/Radio: NBC / MRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Notes of Interest

● With just two races remaining on the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series schedule, Chase Briscoe is looking to find his way back to victory lane where the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors team has been the strongest – the short tracks. The mission begins this weekend with the Xfinity 500 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway, where Briscoe’s performance has been strong since the introduction of the NextGen car at the start of the 2022 season. A fourth-consecutive top-10 finish at the half-mile oval tucked in the hills of Ridgeway, Virginia, would add to the Stewart-Haas Racing driver’s momentum headed to the final race of the season at Phoenix Raceway, where the 28-year-old driver earned his first victory behind the wheel of the No. 14 Ford Mustang.   ● Briscoe has earned three straight top-10 finishes at Martinsville dating back to the March 2022 race. He scored ninth-place results in both 2022 events, the second one in the October race, the third and final race of the Round of 8 of the Cup Series Playoffs in which he was eliminated from championship contention. This past April at Martinsville, Briscoe finished fifth in the first stage and second in the second stage, and led twice for a total of 109 laps en route to a fifth-place result.   ● In the fall of 2020, when the NASCAR Xfinity Series returned to Martinsville after a 13-year hiatus, Briscoe drove to a seventh-place finish. The 27-year-old racer also owns two NASCAR Truck Series starts at Martinsville. His best result came in April 2017, when he started eighth and finished 11th. He returned that October to start on the pole and lead the first 39 laps before a late-race accident relegated him to a 19th-place finish.

Chase Briscoe, Driver of the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

Since the introduction of the NextGen, you have never finished outside of the top-10 at Martinsville. Is that coincidence and good timing after a year of experience in the Cup Series, or is this car more suited to your driving style on a short track? “I don’t know. I’ve always enjoyed going to Martinsville. I felt like I’ve always had speed there, I just didn’t really race that well. So, I don’t know if the NextGen just kind of fits me a little bit better there or if it’s the experience. Martinsville has definitely been a place where we’ve been really good every time we’ve been, we just haven’t been able to capitalize on how good we are. We’ve led quite a few laps there but just haven’t been able to put it all together. It’s a place we always look forward to going to because we are always so fast, so hopefully this time will be different.”   There are a lot of guys who grew up racing asphalt Late Models and who had a goal of racing on tracks like Martinsville. As a dirt racer, is a win at Martinsville as coveted to you as it would be to them? “Martinsville is a very iconic track. The trophy is probably the one that everybody wants. So, from that standpoint, yeah, it definitely is. I feel like if you win at Martinsville, you’re respected as a really good short-track driver and, as a guy who didn’t do any of that growing up, it’d be cool for me to be able to win there. There is a list of guys who are just incredible short-track racers, and that’s not something that I grew up doing, so if I could add my name to that, it would be really cool.”   You didn’t do much Late Model racing growing up, but you did get behind the wheel of a pavement Late Model this year and won in just your second start. Have you learned anything from that limited amount of time on track? “It’s a completely different kind of racing, but I do feel like I’ve learned some things as far as technique that could really help. The reason Denny Hamlin and William Byron are so good at short tracks is because they do have that foundation in Late Model racing. It definitely doesn’t hurt to get that experience.”

Chase Briscoe is 350/1 to win at Texas, worth a $5 drop

 

CHASE BRISCOE Texas Advance No. 14 Rush Truck Centers/Cummins Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing

Event Overview

● Event: AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 (Round 30 of 36) ● Time/Date: 3:30 p.m. EDT on Sunday, Sept. 24 ● Location: Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth ● Layout: 1.5-mile oval ● Laps/Miles: 267 laps/400 miles ● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 80 laps / Stage 2: 80 laps / Final Stage: 107 laps ● TV/Radio: USA / PRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Notes of Interest

● Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 Rush Truck Centers/Cummins Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), is set to make his third NASCAR Cup Series start at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth this Sunday.   ● Briscoe’s best finish in two starts at Texas came in the first race of the Round of 12 of last year’s playoffs. Briscoe started 30th but powered his way to a fifth-place finish. The team struggled early in the race but used fuel strategy to its advantage to earn points and set up a run to the Round of 8.   ● In the NASCAR Xfinity Series, Briscoe has two top-fives in five starts at Texas with a best finish of second in March 2020. He also competed in two NASCAR Truck Series races at the track, finishing second and fourth in the 2017 events, respectively.   ● 14 Years Together: Rush Truck Centers returns to the No. 14 Ford Mustang this weekend at Texas as the company and SHR continue their 14-year partnership, with Rush Truck Centers serving as a primary sponsor for 11 of those years. All of SHR’s racecars travel from event to event in haulers from Rush Truck Centers, the premier service solutions provider to the commercial vehicle industry. And in October, SHR haulers will sport special mudflaps in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Now through the end of October, Rush Truck Centers is proud to offer limited-edition pink Breast Cancer Awareness mudflaps. And for every mudflap sold, $2 will be donated to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation by Rush Truck Centers and promotional marketing company Boundless.   ● Rush Truck Centers is proud to employ 2,500 talented service technicians throughout the largest network of commercial truck and bus dealerships in North America, operating in 23 states and Ontario, Canada. At Rush Truck Centers, service technicians are the heartbeat of its dealerships, and the company is always looking to add the best and brightest technicians to its team. Service technicians interested in looking for the next step in their careers can find additional information and listings of open positions on the Rush Enterprises Technician Careers page.    ● Cummins joins Rush Truck Centers for this weekend’s race. Cummins Inc., is a global power technology leader that designs, manufactures, distributes and services a broad portfolio of power solutions. These solutions include advanced diesel, natural gas, hybrid, electric, fuel cell and other technologies. Cummins powers the future through innovations that make people’s lives better. From buses that transport kids to and from school, to the trucks that carry essentials, to construction, mining equipment, trains and ships, and critical backup power for places like data centers and hospitals, Cummins is doing it with the cleanest solutions available. Learn more at cummins.com.

Chase Briscoe, Driver of the No. 14 Rush Truck Centers/Cummins Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

What has been the toughest part of racing at Texas? “We’ve really had a hard time finding the right balance. That’s something we deal with at a lot of the intermediate tracks, but Texas has been really tough. The track changed a lot with the changes that were made years ago and I think we just haven’t quite gotten it right with the NextGen.”   Last year the No. 14 team used fuel strategy to earn a top-five finish at Texas. Is that something you could do again to get yourself in position to finish inside the top-10? “I think so. We are definitely in position to try something different from what the playoff guys are doing. Track position is big at the intermediate tracks. The race gets to a point where it’s going to be really hard to pass, so if we can get up there, we might be able to hold on to the spot on a long, green-flag run. But we really need to use these last few races to work on our playbook. We have so much to learn and figure out and, if we don’t use this time for that, it could put us behind for next season.”

Chase Briscoe is 75/1 to win at Richmond

 

CHASE BRISCOE Richmond Advance No. 14 Rush Truck Centers Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing

Event Overview

●  Event:  Cook Out 400 (Round 22 of 36) ●  Time/Date:  3 p.m. EDT on Sunday, July 31 ●  Location:  Richmond (Va.) Raceway ●  Layout:  .75-mile oval ●  Laps/Miles:  400 laps/300 miles ●  Stage Lengths:  Stage 1: 70 laps / Stage 2: 160 laps / Final Stage: 170 laps ●  TV/Radio:  USA / MRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Notes of Interest

● Chase Briscoe makes his sixth NASCAR Cup Series start at Richmond (Va.) Raceway Sunday in the No. 14 Rush Truck Centers Ford Mustang. He has a best start of fourth and a best finish of 11th, both earned in April 2022. This past April, Briscoe started 19th and ran in the top-15 all race long en route to a 12th-place finish.   ● Beginning with his 2022 win at Phoenix, Briscoe has finished no worse than 15th in 13 of 16 points-paying starts on tracks 1 mile or shorter. The exceptions are his 22nd-place result in last year’s race on the dirt at the half-mile Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, when he led 59 laps but spun on the final lap while attempting a pass for the win, a 23rd-place finish on the .75-mile Richmond oval last August, and a 30th-place finish on the mile oval at Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway.   ● Briscoe has five NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at Richmond with a best finish of fifth in September 2019.   ● Two weeks ago at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, the track known as the Magic Mile, Briscoe started 27th and drove to a 10th-place finish. It was his best since earning a top-five April 23 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway and his first top-10 with Richard Boswell in the crew chief role for the No. 14 Rush Truck Centers team.   ● 14 Years Together … Rush Truck Centers returns to the No. 14 Ford Mustang this weekend at Richmond as the company and SHR continue a 14-year partnership, with Rush Truck Centers serving as a primary sponsor for 11 of those years. All of the SHR cars travel from race to race in haulers from Rush Truck Centers, the premier service solutions provider to the commercial vehicle industry. And those haulers are supported by the RushCare Customer Support team of parts and service experts, who also provide concierge-level service for scheduling maintenance, technical support, mobile service dispatch and roadside assistance, help locating the nearest dealer, and more. Rush Truck Centers is the largest network of commercial vehicle dealerships in North America with 150 locations in the United States and Ontario, Canada, and takes pride in its integrated approach to customer needs – from vehicle sales to aftermarket parts, service and body shop operations, plus financing, insurance, leasing and rental, as well as alternate fuel systems and other vehicle technologies.

Chase Briscoe, Driver of the No. 14 Rush Truck Centers Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

The short-track package appears to still deliver for the No. 14 team despite the struggles you’ve been faced with lately. Does that give you some confidence heading to Richmond? “I think it gives us something positive to look forward to. It’s going to be really important to be up front and have that good track position if we want to finish there. We saw that at Loudon. We used pit strategy to put ourselves up front and we were able to stay there. We just have to keep making the most out of what we have.”   There are a few tracks coming up on the schedule that you particularly enjoy. Do you feel you can get a win at any of those to lock yourself into the playoffs? “I would like to think so. I’m really excited to get to Indy. I love going back home, and we’ve done well on the road course. I feel like we really owe it to ourselves to finally get a good finish there, and we know we can use pit strategy to our advantage to try to make that happen. Daytona will always be a wildcard, so you can’t completely count us out of that one. It just comes down to really staying out of trouble. So, I think we could make it happen, but right now it’s more important to figure out what we’ve got going on so we can build on something for the rest of the year.”

Chase Briscoe is 30/1 to win at Martinsville

 

CHASE BRISCOE Martinsville Advance No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing

Event Overview

● Event:  NOCO 400 (Round 9 of 36) ● Time/Date:  3 p.m. EDT on Sunday, April 16 ● Location:  Martinsville (Va.) Speedway ● Layout:  .526-mile oval ● Laps/Miles:  400 laps/210.4 miles ● Stage Lengths:  Stage 1: 80 laps / Stage 2: 100 laps / Final Stage: 220 laps ● TV/Radio:  FS1 / MRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Notes of Interest

● Chase Briscoe enters Sunday’s NOCO 400 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway fresh off his first top-five finish of the season. Briscoe finished fifth in the Food City Dirt Race at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway last weekend to earn his fourth finish inside the top-15 in the last five races.   ● Briscoe’s best finishes this season have come on tracks 1 mile or less in length. He finished seventh on the mile oval at Phoenix Raceway on March 12 and 12th two weeks ago on the .75-mile oval at Richmond (Va.) Raceway. Though his most recent finish was on the Bristol half-mile oval, its concrete surface was covered for the lone dirt race on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule.   ● In four Cup Series starts at Martinsville, Briscoe has two top-10 finishes. He placed ninth in both 2022 events at the .526-mile paperclip-shaped track, and was seventh in his last NASCAR Xfinity Series start there in October 2020. Briscoe also owns two NASCAR Truck Series starts at Martinsville with a best result of 11th from the eighth starting position in April 2017. He returned with the Truck Series that October to start on the pole and lead the first 39 laps before a late-race accident relegated him to a 19th-place finish.   ● HighPoint.com makes its second appearance of the season on the No. 14 Ford Mustang this weekend at Martinsville, the first coming at Atlanta Motor Speedway, where Briscoe finished 24th. This weekend will also mark HighPoint.com’s first time appearing as the primary sponsor on the No. 14 at Martinsville for a Cup Series event.

Chase Briscoe, Driver of the No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

The trend of doing well on the short tracks for you and the team has continued this year. Do you feel good about what you’ve learned heading into Martinsville? “I’m really excited about Martinsville. We definitely have a better grasp of what we need on short tracks than we had before the NextGen and we’ve done really well the last two years. We gambled a little in the fall Martinsville race trying to get into the championship race, but we had a really good car and that’s what allowed us to come out with the finish that we did.”   You see guys who really excel at places like Martinsville, and others who have a really hard time figuring out how to get up front and make it work. What have you learned as a driver that has helped you run up front there? “I didn’t grow up doing this kind of racing, so I had a really hard time when it came to short tracks. It’s a different kind of aggressive driving and you really have to have a car that can stick to the bottom and turn well to be able to do anything. I think the biggest thing I’ve had to learn, and I think it’s probably something I’ve just had to learn in general, but taking care of the tires is so important. It’s a long race, tempers get heated and, if you end up using everything up, you’re going to get run over or moved out of the way.”

Chase Briscoe is 22/1 to win at COTA

 

CHASE BRISCOE COTA Advance No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing

Event Overview

● Event: EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix (Round 6 of 36) ● Time/Date: 3:30 p.m. EDT on Sunday, March 26 ● Location: Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas ● Layout: 3.426-mile, 20-turn road course ● Laps/Miles: 68 laps/231.88 miles ● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 15 laps / Stage 2: 15 laps / Final Stage: 38 laps ● TV/Radio: FOX / PRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Notes of Interest

● Chase Briscoe will make his third start at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas, this Sunday in the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix. Briscoe earned his first NASCAR Cup Series top-10 with his sixth-place in the inaugural race there in 2021. It was his first of three top-10 finishes earned in his Rookie of the Year season, all on road courses. Though the introduction of the NextGen car leveled the playing field on road courses during the 2022 season, Briscoe’s team showed speed on road courses. He’s focused this year on finding the areas where he can gain advantages over his competitors through intense prep work during the offseason.   ● Beginning this weekend at COTA, teams will no longer see mandatory cautions at the conclusion of the first and second stages at road-course events. Drivers will still earn stage points based on their running position at the completion of the designated lap, but there will be no break in racing action.   ● Two of Briscoe’s biggest wins in the NASCAR Xfinity Series came on road courses. The first, earned on the Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway Roval in 2018, has been credited as the win that saved his career. In 2020, when the Xfinity Series ran its inaugural race on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway grand prix circuit, the Mitchell, Indiana, native led a race-high 30 of 62 laps en route to a dominating win in front of his hometown crowd.   ● Sunday’s race is as a home event for Mahindra Tractors, a brand of Houston-based Mahindra Ag North America. Part of Mahindra Group’s Automotive and Farm Sector, Mahindra Ag North America is the No. 1-selling farm tractor company in the world, based on volumes across all company brands. Mahindra farm equipment is engineered to be easy to operate by first-time tractor or side-by-side owners, and heavy duty to tackle the tough jobs of rural living, farming and ranching. Steel-framed Mahindra tractors and side-by-sides are ideal for customers who demand performance, reliability and comfort at a great value. Mahindra dealers are independent, family-owned businesses located throughout the U.S. and Canada.

Chase Briscoe, Driver of the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

In 2021, all of your top-10 finishes came on road courses. With the introduction of the NextGen car, we saw more parity. Is it more difficult to find those areas on track where you can gain an advantage over other teams? “I think the whole field has elevated their ability on road courses, between the teams putting in work to figure out what to do with the new car and the driver getting more comfortable. So, it’s going to be hard to have a big advantage where you would typically find it, in a braking zone or with straightaway speed, but the lower downforce will hopefully help some and allow us to find something we can work with to gain that advantage.”   You got to spend time with Jenson Button last week. Did you have any advice for the Formula One champion before his first NASCAR start? “I don’t know that he needs any advice from me. These Formula One guys are unbelievable road-course racers. Last year, I kind of did a seat swap with Mick Schumacher and Kevin Magnussen at the Charlotte Roval, and they only ran like five laps apiece before they were within a second of what I was running at pretty much 100 percent. So, Jenson is going to bring a lot to the table just as far as knowing what to look for as an opportunity to maximize what he’s getting from the car. I’m really excited for the opportunity to race against him and learn from him. I don’t think it will take long for him to catch on, just from talking to him and seeing how he prepares for these races.”

Chase Briscoe is 40/1 to win at Fontana

 

CHASE BRISCOE Fontana Advance No. 14 Rush Truck Centers/Mobil Delvac Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing

Event Overview

● Event: Pala Casino 400 (Round 2 of 36)  ● Time/Date: 3:30 p.m. EDT on Sunday, Feb. 26  ● Location: Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California  ● Layout: 2-mile oval  ● Laps/Miles: 200 laps/400 miles  ● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 65 laps / Stage 2: 65 laps / Final Stage: 70 laps  ● TV/Radio: FOX / MRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Notes of Interest

● Next up on the NASCAR Cup Series Schedule is the Pala Casino 400 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California. Chase Briscoe heads to Fontana looking to turn around his start to the 2023 season after a 35th-place finish in the Daytona 500 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway last Sunday. The No. 14 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) led twice for five laps before being shuffled into the pack during pit stops and had nowhere to go as cars were collected ahead of him in an lap-181 incident.   ● Briscoe will strap into the No. 14 Rush Truck Centers/Mobil Delvac Ford Mustang this weekend for his second Cup Series race at the 2-mile oval in Fontana. His two Fontana starts in the NASCAR Xfinity Series resulted in a best finish of fifth in 2019. In 2020, Briscoe started third and led five times for 16 laps before a spin on lap 126 relegated the team to a 19th-place finish.   ● 14 Years Together…Rush Truck Centers returns to the No. 14 Ford Mustang for the first time this year. Fontana marks the 11th year that Rush Truck Centers has appeared as a primary sponsor on an SHR car and its 14th season as a team partner. All of the SHR cars travel from race to race in haulers from Rush Truck Centers, the premier service solutions provider to the commercial vehicle industry. And those haulers are supported by the RushCare Customer Support team of parts and service experts, who also provide concierge-level service for scheduling maintenance, technical support, mobile service dispatch and roadside assistance, help locating the nearest dealer, and more. Rush Truck Centers is the largest network of commercial vehicle dealerships in North America with 150 locations in the United States and Ontario, Canada, and takes pride in its integrated approach to customer needs – from vehicle sales to aftermarket parts, service and body shop operations, plus financing, insurance, leasing and rental, as well as alternate fuel systems and other vehicle technologies.   ● Mobil Delvac joins Rush Truck Centers for the Pala Casino 400. Mobil Delvac heavy-duty diesel engine oils are designed to help commercial fleets save money and boost uptime through fuel economy savings, extending the life of engines, and lengthening oil drain intervals. In 2020, the SHR haulers moved from three oil changes per season to a single oil change by using Mobil Delvac diesel engine oil.

Chase Briscoe, Driver of the No. 14 Rush Truck Centers/Mobil Delvac Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

The plan is for Fontana to be reconfigured into a half-mile track following this weekend’s race. How do you feel about it possibly being the last race on the 2-mile layout? “I think it’s going to be bittersweet for all the drivers because it’s just so fun from a driver’s standpoint. It’s so slick and worn out. It’s rough and you just bounce around. You can run wherever on the racetrack, especially with the Next Gen car. I thought that it was just a really good racetrack for these cars, so I’m bummed we didn’t get more time to race it as is. It’s one of my favorite tracks to go to just because I feel like that’s one of the tracks where a driver can make quite a bit of a difference, so I’ll be sad to see it go. But, if it becomes a short track, that may not be so bad. We don’t have a short track out West, so that would give us some variety during the West Coast swing.”   The West Coast swing is usually when we get a good idea of who the stronger teams will be. Is that still the case with the NextGen car? “I’m not really sure, but I’d say probably not. It used to be that after the first four races, we’d kind of know, but it seems like things have been a little different. Maybe around week eight or nine we’d have a good idea. But even so, we’ve seen that the swings in performance with the NextGen are a little bigger. One week you can be really good and the next not even close to being good. So, I guess at this point we see who seems to be on top after that race at Phoenix and then look back later to see if that holds up.”