The latter was apparent in last weekend’s NASCAR Cup race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, when Briscoe ran consistently up front and appeared to have race-winning speed until he picked up some damage with a run-in with Ryan Blaney racing for position early in the final stage.
Briscoe ended the race 21st but with teammate Noah Gragson finishing sixth, it was clear SHR appears to have improved from last season.
“Before (the incident) I thought our car was pretty good. We weren’t good enough to win, but we were definitely a fifth to 10th place car fairly easily. We were able to pass a lot of cars,” Briscoe said.
“I was really happy with how my car was driving and just after the contact, as soon as it happened, I went into the next corner, and we were a half-second slower that lap and just continued to stay a half-second slower the rest of the race.”
The series now moves to Phoenix this weekend and that’s good news for Briscoe.
His first career Cup win came at Phoenix two seasons ago, a dominating performance in which he held off Tyler Reddick, Ross Chastain and Kevin Harvick to pick up the victory in his 40th start.
The 1-mile oval has been one of Briscoe’s best tracks in Cup. He has three finishes of seventh or better – including his win – in his last four starts.
“I feel like when our car’s really good, I’ve always been able to be up in the mix, but when our car is off, I feel like I’ve struggled to find the speed and where to make speed,” Briscoe, 29, said.
“I definitely feel like my race team has carried me to a certain extent every time we’ve gone to Phoenix and had those good runs. They’ve done a really good job of bringing a really good package there.
“I definitely still have a lot to learn when it comes to Phoenix, just trying to make my car do things that it doesn’t necessarily want to do.”
New rules package
All of the series’ drivers will face a new challenge this weekend as NASCAR will debut a new aerodynamic rules package for road courses and most short tracks around one mile in distance.
The only on-track testing with the package was done by six teams over two days in December so there remain many unknowns.
“I don’t know a whole lot about it as far as what it’s going to be like. Fortunately, we’re going to get a full practice session on Friday, so that’ll be nice to kind of go through some things and try to see where it’s all different and what it does,” Briscoe said.
“I certainly think this package on paper is going to put a lot more in the driver’s hands. We should be slipping and sliding around a lot more. I think it’s going to be easier to pass guys, you’re going to see a lot more comers and goers.
“From a racing standpoint on the short tracks, I definitely think it’s going to make it better. So that’s exciting to think about.”
