At one point early in the 2023 season, Briscoe and his No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing team recorded three consecutive top-five finishes and rallied to as high as 14th in the series standings.
But that was three months ago. Since then, it’s been one struggle after another.
That is until Monday’s rain-delayed race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway when Briscoe overcame a poor qualifying effort (27th) to finish 10th – his best finish since he was fourth at Talladega in April.
“Out of the last two or three months, it feels like a win – truthfully,” said Briscoe, who also earned his career-best finish on the 1.058-mile oval. “At the start of the race, we weren’t really great by any means.
“I said a couple weeks ago coming over here that it’s going to take a while to figure out these cars – to learn these cars, what adjustments make the most sense and kind of what my baseline is.
“I felt like right there at the end, we were a seventh-place car, but if we could have started the weekend there, then maybe we could have been battling for the win.”
Technically, Briscoe also left New Hampshire a winner – he won a Sprint Cars of New England 30-lap feature on Friday night.
Briscoe has been hoping to see a change of fortune since he was reunited with his former Xfinity Series crew chief Richard Boswell prior to last month’s race at Nashville.
“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 race track. Hopefully, we can continue on this.
“We just needed it honestly – something good to happen to us so we can get some momentum.”
Briscoe, 28, remains 31st in the series standings and it will take a win for him to gain entry in the 16-driver playoffs this season.
Being able to get himself in position up front late in races is a big step toward being able to accomplish that goal.
“Hopefully, this will kind of kickstart us in the right direction,” Briscoe said. “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.”
