Chase Briscoe Atlanta 400 Advance – No. 14 Mahindra Ford Dark Horse Mustang

How much does racing at Atlanta emulate what you experienced two weeks ago at Daytona?

“It’s similar in a sense, but very different in the sense of just how fast things happen. The mental side of Atlanta is, by far, the hardest thing we do all year long. It’s a mile shorter, so while it’s very, very easy to run wide open the whole time when you go to Daytona or Talladega, at Atlanta your car is struggling just to even get close to that. There’s a lot more to the team side of things at Atlanta as far as getting the balance of the car right, and it’s just a challenge for us mentally with how fast things happen and how quickly you have to process things.”

Is competing at Atlanta mentally taxing?

“I think it’s the most mentally draining racetrack we have on the schedule. Daytona and Talladega have always been mentally draining, but you go to Atlanta and things happen four times the speed because you lose a mile with that racetrack. It’s an interesting track because it races like a superspeedway, but it’s still an intermediate. The corners didn’t change. The radius of the corners, all of that is still the same as we’ve always had, so it’s not like a Daytona or a Talladega where your car goes around there wide-open super easily. You’re manhandling the car at all times, so Atlanta is a very challenging racetrack and, by far, the most mentally draining with just how much your brain is trying to process and listen to your spotter. Actually applying what your spotter is saying is hard because things happen so fast there. It’s a tough one, for sure.”

Talk about your race earlier this year at Atlanta. Fast in qualifying. Fast in the race. Running top-five with 21 laps to go. A crash left you 31st, but that doesn’t really tell the whole story.

“Atlanta’s one of those races I wish I could have back. Our car was so good. We qualified well, we raced really, really well, and I was able to be extremely aggressive. I feel like my car handled better than anybody in the field. So, yeah, that’s a race I wish I could have back because the end-of-the-day result certainly didn’t reflect how good we were that day. It was just one of those situations where we got four-wide going into the corner and there was really only room for three cars, and I ended up being on the wrong end of it. But I’m excited to go back there. It’s a place where I felt like we kind of gave one away in a sense – maybe not gave one away, but we were going to be in the mix at the end, for sure, if we were still rolling. Hopefully, our car will be able to handle as good as it did there the first time, and if we can do that and be as aggressive as we were, I feel like it can be a good day for us.”

You first raced at Atlanta back in February. Seven months have passed and the weather is now a lot hotter and a lot more humid. How much does Atlanta change from late February to early September?

“I think your car is going to handle worse in the hotter temperatures. So from that side of things, how good our car handled earlier this year is encouraging. If it can continue to just be better than the field, that should make it easier for us to drive through the field. It’s hard to say, I think it will just get harder to run the car there wide open. Every time we’ve gone there, it’s gotten harder and harder to do that. That track’s been aging pretty quickly and the hotter temps are just going to make it that much more slick out there. I don’t know necessarily what to expect, but if I had to guess, that’s what going to happen.”

With your run at Atlanta earlier this year and a slicker track that plays into your dirt-track upbringing, what are your expectations for your return to Atlanta?

“Atlanta’s kind of unique because it is a superspeedway, so it’s not as comfortable to be loose as I would be at a Charlotte- or Darlington-type racetrack where it’s just easier to kind of slip and slide around. At Atlanta, you kind of want your car to be as stuck and comfortable as it can be because you have to be able to be aggressive and make moves and do the superspeedway-style blocks and maneuvers. That place is probably a little bit tougher. The encouraging thing for us is how well our car handled in the first race. Hopefully, that difference from the guys who didn’t have the handling will be a little bit bigger and our car will be able to adjust to the hotter weather, and if that happens, I definitely feel like we’ll be in the mix.”

When you get to Atlanta, it’s just 10 more races until the season is over. What do you want to accomplish in these last 10 races at Stewart-Haas?

“Everything we can do to try and win more races and compete for a championship. For sure, we want to go out with our heads held high. I’ve been in this same position with Brad Keselowski Racing (in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series) where we were going to shut down at the end of the year and we were able to go and literally win the last race of the season and I think that really put a stamp on things. It’s cool to be able to say, with all the circumstances you were in with all the chaos and everything, people trying to find another place to go, that they were still willing to put the work in and the effort to bring race-winning cars. Winning again would be pretty special, and that’s what we’re going to try to do.”