KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Chase Briscoe headed to the hospital on Friday when his wife, Marissa, started to feel contractions, and the driver of the No. 14 car for Stewart-Haas Racing wasn't quite sure whether the twins they were expecting in October were arriving early.
Turned out to be a false alarm, so the couple headed home after a couple of hours. And on Saturday, Briscoe hopped on a plane to Kansas Speedway, where his quest to continue racing through the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs will continue on Sunday.
“I've got to qualify and I've got to race,” he said. “We're here. I'm in the playoffs. If I wasn't in the playoffs, I'd be home (in case) something happened. But the contingency plan? I'm here to race for a championship. Marissa knows that.”
With his wife still very much pregnant back home, Briscoe has even more incentive to win the race — and quickly.
Everyone is similarly on board with Briscoe's postseason push at Stewart-Haas Racing, which is closing up shop at the end of the season. Tony Stewart is departing while co-owner Gene Haas will carry on in NASCAR's top series, but the move has created a lot of uncertainty for the teams of Briscoe, Noah Gragson, Josh Berry and Ryan Preece the rest of the season.
In fact, the team swapped pit crews this week. Berry's bunch from the No. 4 car have been the most consistent this season, so they are moving to Briscoe's car for the opening race in the second round of the Cup Series playoffs.
“I do get where that outside perception is chaos,” said Briscoe, whose three-wide pass to win the Southern 500 at Darlington earlier this month got him into the playoffs. “The guys that got taken off are obviously frustrated. I get it. But at the end of the day, they want to see us win a championship, because they are part of the team.
"That's the unique thing about our company right now is just the total buy-in, having this one goal of going out as champions.”
Briscoe has a long way to go. He was last among the 12 drivers to survive the first round of the playoffs, and he will need some consistently good runs — or a win — at Kansas, Talladega and the road course at Charlotte to keep going. But he was an underdog two years ago, too, and Briscoe managed to reach the round of eight before he was eliminated.
In the meantime, Marissa will be watching from home, waiting for twins to join big brother Brooks in cheering him on.
“I told her to literally lay down. Don't do anything until Monday,” Briscoe said with a smile, “and on Monday, you can get on your yoga ball. Bounce around. Walk as many miles as you can. Do whatever you need to do.”
After his dominant win at Bristol, Kyle Larson returns to Kansas Speedway with as much momentum as when he last left it. The 2021 series champion edged Chris Buescher in the May race by 0.001 seconds — the closest finish in Cup Series history.
Larson has six consecutive top-10 runs at Kansas, starting with a win in the playoff race during his championship season.
“I'm obviously happy at how Bristol turned out. Happy to be back at Kansas,” said Larson, who has a series-leading five wins this season but has not made a habit of watching his nose-to-nose finish with Buescher from the spring.
“Just when it's obviously used for highlights,” he said. “Yeah, it was good to be on the good end of that."
The No. 11 car for Denny Hamlin at Joe Gibbs Racing has been sponsored by FedEx for nearly two decades. But the company has scaled back its level of commitment in recent years, and rumors are swirling that it could cut back even more next season.
“They're the ones that really took a risk on me when I was running the Xfinity Series, fifth to eighth every week,” said Hamlin, whose four victories at Kansas Speedway are the most by any driver. “That risk paid off for many, many years.”
Ty Dillon will drive the No. 10 car full time for Kaulig Racing next season. Dillon ran a part-time schedule in the No. 16 this season, and his final scheduled race is Sunday at Kansas. The team is releasing the rights to the No. 31 to get the No. 10 back.
“When we decided to move to the Cup series, the number was not available," Kaulig Racing president Chris Rice said, "so we are looking forward to having familiarity and synergy across both series with the Nos. 10 and 16.”
A.J. Allmendinger was announced last month as the full-time driver for the No. 16 car, while Daniel Hemric — who drove a full season in the No. 31 this year — confirmed on social media that he would not be back with the team.
Carl Edwards will be back at Kansas to drive the pace car on Sunday. He grew up across the state line in Columbia, Missouri, before embarking on a career that earned him a spot in the NASCAR Hall of Fame. He won 28 wins over 13 years in the Cup Series, though he never won in 19 starts at what he considered his home track.
“Carl is one of the most personable superstars in our sport’s modern history and is certainly a fan favorite here at Kansas Speedway,” track president Pat Warren said. “We’re thrilled he can join us for what should be an electrifying race."
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