10th-Place Result at Loudon 'Feels Like a Win' for Chase Briscoe After Struggles of 2023 Season

It hasn't been a secret that the opening half of the NASCAR Cup Series campaign hasn't been kind to third-year driver Chase Briscoe - and by the team's standards, for Stewart-Haas Racing as a company.

So, while a 10th-place result in Monday's Crayon 301 at New Hampshire won't remove the goose egg in the win column, and won't lock the No. 14 into the Playoffs, it certainly tends to feel like a victory for a team whose season was rapidly descending into nightmare status.

"Out of the last two or three months, it feels like a win - truthfully," Briscoe said post-race. "At the start of the race, we weren't really great, by any means. But I said a couple of weeks ago coming over here that it's going to take a while to figure these cars - to learn these cars, what adjustments make the most sense, and what my baseline is."

To start Monday's 301-lap contest, Briscoe and the No. 14 team faced the same issues they've struggled with all season; a general lack of pace, which placed them outside the top-30 at times in the first stage and needing major adjustments.

Richard Boswell, making his sixth-ever start as a NASCAR Cup Series crew chief, was tasked with making those adjustments, while also keeping his driver calm and in the game.

A staple of Stewart-Haas' Xfinity program for five-plus, that task wasn't unfamiliar for Boswell, having led Briscoe and the No. 98 team to eight victories between 2018 and 2020.

Those adjustments allowed the 28-year-old driver to slowly march through the field, putting him in position to stay on the racetrack at the end of the second stage, gaining tons of track position.

With tire wear not being an overwhelming factor at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Briscoe was able to retain his spot inside the top-10 until making a green-flag pit stop.

After the field cycled through, the No. 14 Mobil 1 Gen G Ford Mustang returned to the top-10, and with a car better suited to stay there.

Due to a string of late-race restarts, Briscoe was able to be aggressive and jump into the top five with 16 laps remaining, but would quickly lose those spots to faster-pacing cars.

The final nine laps of the event would be contested under the green flag, where the No. 14 would fade to its final running position of 10th, which left Briscoe more than pleased about his result.

"I felt like there at the end we were a seventh-place car, but if we could have started the weekend there, then maybe we could've been battling for the win," said Briscoe. "So, we're just making small steps right now, and honestly, to run 10th, it feels like a win - especially here. This is, by far, my worst racetrack.

"Hopefully, we can continue on this. We just needed it, honestly - something good to happen to us so we can get some momentum. Hopefully, this will kind of kickstart us in the right direction. Pocono is kind of the question mark just for how we’ve been running on the big tracks. Hopefully, we can go there and have a good run."

In order for Briscoe to score his second straight berth into the NASCAR Cup Series post-season, he'll have to score a win, as he sits more than 150 points below the cutline.

While intermediates have been a point of struggle for SHR in 2023, Briscoe could find himself in a position to flip the playoff picture upside down with a win at a short track, road course, or even the regular-season finale at Daytona.

Image Courtesy of Jared East, NKP, Ford Performance