Chase Briscoe Michigan Advance – No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Dark Horse Mustang

Michigan is a fast, 2-mile, D-shaped oval. Do you feel the sensation of speed there more than you do at other tracks?

“It definitely feels like you’re hauling the mail at Michigan. Michigan is one of those places where you know you’re going fast and if you hit something, it’s not going to feel good. It definitely gets your attention.”

Michigan marks a return to a high-speed, high-banked, intermediate track after running a variety of tracks through the summer. Can the knowledge learned earlier in the year at Las Vegas – or even at places that we’ve raced at more recently like Kansas and Charlotte – be applied to Michigan, or were those races so long ago that it’s no longer applicable?

“I think you can take a little bit from those races, but Michigan is kind of different than all the other ones. It’s not got a lot of tire falloff, it’s extremely fast, it’s smoother through the corners, and the banking and things are different, so Michigan is kind of its own racetrack that stands out among the rest. You can apply some of the stuff you’ve learned at mile-and-a-half racetracks from an aero standpoint, but when you go to Michigan, all that stuff is amplified, so you’ve got to be really on your game from an aero standpoint and an engine standpoint. It has been a while since we’ve run a mile-and-a-half-style track. I feel like it’s always a fresh reset when we get to Michigan and try to figure out who’s going to be good.”

We’ve heard the adage of, “Slow down to go fast,” and that seems to be used a lot at Michigan. What does that mean and how does it apply to Michigan?

“Because you’re going so fast down the straightaway driving in, and the straightaways are so long there that you’re really just trying to set up for the exit of the corner, so sometimes when you try to start slowing down, you start backing your entry up and you start getting on the gas earlier and making the straightaway longer, and you end up going faster. It’s funny, a lot of times you see guys actually start going faster when they’re saving fuel there just because they’re making the straightaways a lot longer. I’m pretty guilty of driving in too deep there. Hopefully, this year I can do a lot better job of that.”

Oftentimes, Michigan races have come down to fuel mileage. How does a driver try to save fuel when they’re still trying to outrun other racecars?

“It’s a hard balance trying to keep those guys behind you. I think the biggest thing is just being a lot smoother on the gas pedal and not only pushing it down, but even letting up, and then just lifting earlier in the corner, getting back to the throttle a little bit later. There are a lot of things you can do, including shutting it off. Guys will even do that sometimes under green getting into the corner. There are a lot of things you can do, fuel mileage-wise, especially at the bigger racetracks like Michigan. There are a lot of games played, for sure, on the fuel side.”

Has there been a fuel-mileage race where at the end of it you’ve said, “I did a really good job of saving fuel and got us the best finish possible?’, or have there been races where you’re left scratching your head wondering what you could’ve done differently?

“Nashville earlier this year would definitely be one where I thought I was doing a really, really good job of saving and doing everything I needed to do, and somebody who had essentially three laps less fuel than me made it and I didn’t. I don’t know, it’s definitely hard. I think the big thing is you can save all you want under caution, but sometimes under green you’re burning more if you’re faster, or you’re burning less if you’re a little bit slower than some other guys. So, it’s just hard to say really what you’ve got. Nashville would certainly be the one that stands out above the rest. I thought I did a really good job under caution, and even looking back at stuff, I thought I did a really comparable job to everybody, but then you still don’t have enough at the end.”

When you’re trying to save fuel, is it easier to make a mistake because you’re sort of out of your rhythm, or do you just adapt into a new rhythm?

“I feel like you just adapt. You’re always doing something different trying to get more and more fuel saved. It’s easier to drive the car when you’re fuel saving just because you’re not pushing the car as hard, but there’s still a rhythm and a technique of trying to maximize your time while saving fuel. It’s kind of a new rhythm that you find, but it’s also constantly evolving as you’re trying to save more fuel.”

Do you put an asterisk next to a fuel-mileage win, or are you of the opinion that a win’s a win, no matter how you get it?

“They all pay the same amount of points and pay the same amount of money. For me, from a pride standpoint, it’s a little bit different if you know you lucked into one in the sense of fuel mileage. But at the same time, you still did a better job than everybody else. A win’s a win in my book. You still get to take home a trophy and enjoy victory lane, so it doesn’t really matter to me how you get them, it’s just a matter of getting them.”