Chase Briscoe only drove a midget three times during the 2023 season.
The full-time NASCAR Cup Series driver kicked off the year with a B main appearance at the Chili Bowl Nationals in January, made one start at Millbridge (N.C.) Speedway in May and ran a pair of races at Illinois’ Wayne County Speedway in June.
His best showing was at Wayne County with the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series, where he finished sixth in the 20-car field.
Then, about six months after his last midget start, the Stewart-Haas Racing driver loaded up his red-and-black No. 5 midget and returned to the Chili Bowl at SageNet Center in Tulsa, Okla. He’s been a regular at the temporary quarter-mile track every year since 2015, but only made the A main one time (2017) in nine attempts.
In 2024, he added another checkmark to his bucket list by making the A main a second time during his 10th trip to the renowned indoor midget race.
“With how little I race the midget, to come here and to at least be competitive is cool. I felt like every race, with the exception of the feature, I went forward,” Briscoe said.
And that he did.
During his preliminary feature on Jan. 8, the driver of the No. 5 midget went 12th-to-fifth in the 30-lapper — a performance that quickly became one of the highlights Briscoe’s week.
“It was the most comfortable I felt with everything,” Briscoe said. “The Race of Champions, leading the first 10 or 12 laps, qualifying good and battling for second in our prelim with four laps to go was definitely the highlight of the week.”
In the days between his prelim and Saturday’s B main, the 29-year-old bided his time by working on the other two Chase Briscoe Racing entries — one piloted by Karter Sarff, and the other by Kyle Strickler.
For a team that only rolls out of the shop two or three times a year, their efforts were commendable, as both Briscoe and Sarff made it into Saturday’s 55-lap finale.
“On the car ownership side, to bring three cars here and have two of them make the race is a big deal. Not only am I not racing (during the year), but the team’s not racing either,” Briscoe said. “So for us to be as competitive as we are, it’s something to be proud of.”
And yet, the Cup Series regular couldn’t help but pick apart his 21st-place result.
“I didn’t do a very good job at the beginning of the race as far as being aggressive enough and trying to get track position, and when you start 19th or 21st or whatever it was, the leaders come really, really quickly,” Briscoe explained.
To clean up the rusty parts of his dirt-track toolkit, Briscoe is hoping to wheel the No. 5 Mahindra Tractors midget more consistently during the year ahead.
“Looking forward to running the midget a little bit more this year, just trying to get better for next year’s (Chili Bowl),” Briscoe said.
In the meantime, his focus will remain on piloting the No. 14 Ford for Stewart-Haas Racing in the Cup Series. He finished 30th in the standings last season.
Watch an exclusive interview with Chase Briscoe below.