Chase Briscoe relishing $1M NASCAR In-Season Challenge against son's favorite driver
Fresh off a win in Pocono, Joe Gibbs Racing's Chase Briscoe is excited to take on his son's favorite driver in the opening race of the In-Season Challenge
The first-ever NASCAR In-Season Challenge is finally set to get underway at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday. There, the 32 qualified drivers, including Chase Briscoe, will battle it out in the first round during the Quaker State 400 Presented by Walmart.
With $1 million up for grabs for the Challenge’s ultimate winner, it seems safe to say the driver of the No. 19 Toyota Camry XSE for Joe Gibbs Racing cannot wait, especially as he is set to kick off his bracket against his son’s favorite driver, Noah Gragson.
“I'm excited. I think it's a great thing for us,” Briscoe told Shannon Spake on The Day After following his recent win in Pocono. “It's kind of a weird part of the season, right? Where it's not the very end of the regular season. It's kind of the dog days of summer in a sense. And for us to be able to have something for the next four or five weeks to kind of have a storyline around, I think will be really good.
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“It's going to be fun going up against Noah. Me and Noah golf almost every weekend together. My son's favorite driver is Noah, actually. So, Noah texted me after [Pocono] and he sent me the picture of the bracket, he goes, ‘Oh no.’
“I told him I was coming for him. So yeah, it'll be really fun. He told me since I made the Playoffs, he's just going to wreck me anyways. That way he can have a shot. So yeah, we'll see how next week goes.”
The Challenge has been seeded based on their single best results over the past three races at Nashville, Mexico City, and Pocono. Over the next five races, each remaining driver will take on a predetermined challenger for a spot in the next round, all whilst also competing for the race win as per usual.
Another driver set to compete is Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson, with the driver of the No. 5 Chevrolet ZL1 set to take on 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick in the opening round.
“I really like it. I think here you've seen other sports kind of start introducing In-Season tournaments and I think it's nice for us. It adds another storyline,” Larson told Jim Rome. “Sometimes the summer months can get just kind of dragging on and feeling long and you don't really know what you're racing for necessarily.
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“So I think throwing in this In-Season tournament with a lot of money on the line too is going to be fun for us teams and competitors and it's really going to reward consistency. So hopefully we're one of those consistently fast teams throughout that stretch of races and we can be celebrating the first in-season tournament.”
Meanwhile, Joey Logano in the No. 22 Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Team Penske will be hoping he is able to get the better of Alex Bowman in Atlanta, admitting on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio that the prospect of winning $1 million is “plenty for me to go to work.”
“I get it, you see how upset I was after the [All-Star] race. It’s the same number…So yeah I’m excited about it. It gives us something to talk about at this point of the year, outside of just the teams that are trying to make the playoffs.
“The guys that are already in the playoffs like it gives a little something more. I think it’s a great idea and something I’m excited to see how it plays out. I’m sure it’s going to be something exciting enough that we’ll probably do again, but yeah, I think it’s great.”
