Chase Briscoe enters Bristol Dirt Trucks for AM Racing

Chase Briscoe is yet another NASCAR Cup Series regular who will run both his main series’ and the Craftsman Truck Series‘ dirt races at Bristol Motor Speedway this weekend. He will drive the #22 Ford F-150 for AM Racing in the latter, marking his return to the Trucks after skipping 2022.

After racing the full 2017 Truck campaign and finishing sixth in points, Briscoe has only returned to the series on very sporadic occasion with particular interest in the dirt events thanks to his upbringing in such a discipline. He won the 2018 race at Eldora followed by the pole the following year, both for ThorSport Racing, before not appearing in 2020 as Eldora was axed from the calendar due to COVID-19.

When the Trucks added dirt races at Bristol and Knoxville in 2021, Briscoe ran both for Roper Racing, respectively finishing fifth and thirty-sixth due to a crash. He also did a pavement start at Kansas with the team and placed nineteenth.

“I always look forward to the Bristol dirt weekend and to be able to get on track twice as much and feel things out will be a lot of fun and, I hope, really beneficial,” said Briscoe. “I know everyone at AM Racing has worked hard to get the truck ready and I think it’s anyone’s race when it comes to the dirt events. I got the chance to run Bristol a few years ago, and I’ve run the Truck race at Knoxville, so I’ve got a good idea of how the truck itself will act on dirt. It’ll really just come down to how the track surface changes and whether things can stay green for long enough to make a move.

“I love going back to the Truck Series so hopefully I’ll be able to pick up my second dirt win in a truck this weekend.”

Outside of NASCAR, Briscoe runs a World of Outlaws sprint car team and has competed on dirt since his youth. However, an off-year for his Stewart-Haas Racing in 2021 and a spin in 2022 meant his dirt successes have not manifested at the Cup Series’ Bristol Dirt Race, having finished twentieth and twenty-second. Despite the poor finish in 2022, he finished fourth and led fifty-nine laps prior to his spin.

Briscoe joins William Byron and Joey Logano as Cup full-timers racing both Bristol events, while Jonathan Davenport is pulling “double duty” for his NASCAR début. In his main series, Briscoe is currently twenty-first in points after seven rounds.

AM Racing fields the #22 for multiple drivers with Josh Reaume comprising the majority of the schedule thanks to friendly relations with his Reaume Brothers Racing outfit, both of whom are new Ford factory teams for 2023. Max Gutiérrez and Logan Bearden have also done one-offs in the truck, which is twenty-fifth in owner points after five races with a best finish of nineteenth at Daytona from Reaume. The team is also in their first year with an Xfinity Series programme for Brett Moffitt.

“We started putting the wheels in motion about having Chase drive for us at Bristol right around Daytona and once we knew he was interested, we have been steadily preparing for this race,” commented team president Wade Moore.

“Chase is a talented race car driver but his experience and feedback on dirt will be a huge asset to our organisation as we chase our first career win in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. Without a doubt, we believe Chase will not only put our team in contention, but he will have an opportunity to also win his third career Truck Series race.”