Briscoe back at Phoenix as reigning winner

Even though Chase Briscoe will be driving a race car that features a significantly different competition package at Phoenix Raceway this year, the driver of the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford remains optimistic.

Briscoe will take the green flag on Sunday as the defending winner of the United Rentals Work United 500 at the 1-mile track.

The NASCAR Cup Series car he’ll be driving will produce roughly 30 percent less downforce than last year’s iteration, thanks to rules changes designed to enhance racing on tracks of 1.058 miles or shorter and on road courses (exceptions being high-banked concrete Bristol and Dover).

The height of the rear spoiler has been halved from 4 inches to 2 inches, and the number of downforce-producing devices underneath the car — diffuser strakes, engine panel strakes and the diffuser’s outer fencing — has been reduced significantly.

To allow teams to adjust to these changes, NASCAR has added a 50-minute practice session on Friday afternoon.

Briscoe is convinced the changes will have a noticeable effect on the racing.

“I think any time you can have less downforce, it’s going to bring the cars closer together and create a better race,” Briscoe said. “The tires wear out, and you start slipping and sliding around. It just makes it more competitive. There’s good and bad to that.

“It means, as a team, we have to be on it if we want to have a chance at a win, but if you can hit your setup right and keep track position, then it just adds that much more excitement. I don’t know that we can take much from last year because of the changes that have been made, so we’ll have to see what happens when we get on track for practice.”

Even though last year’s notebook may have lost relevance given the changes to the rules package, Briscoe feels his No. 14 team has found a path to success at shorter, flatter tracks with NASCAR’s Next Gen car.

After winning last year’s spring race at Phoenix, Briscoe struggled, but he closed the season with a ninth-place run at Martinsville and a fourth-place finish at Phoenix.