It’ll be Briscoe’s second Xfinity Series start at Road America. In 2019, he started 10th, led two laps and finished seventh. Driving at Road America last weekend had other benefits.
“The IMSA car and the NASCAR stuff is quite a bit different as far as how they drive,” Briscoe said. “But I feel like learned some stuff on the race track; things like how I hit certain curbs or where to hit certain curbs, tried some different line stuff just to see. Sometimes it feels faster in the race car but you don’t necessarily know especially when you’re at place where a lap time is over 2 minutes. It’s really hard to see if you gained anything.
“For me, the fortunate thing was in IMSA we had data. So I could go back and look and see, ‘OK in this corner when I tried this it was a little bit worse or it was little bit better.’ I feel like trying different things on the race track … hopefully those things will correlate over to the Xfinity stuff.”
Road America has produced some exciting races since NASCAR’s return in 2010.
In the 10 previous runnings of the race, there hasn’t been a repeat winner. In addition, five of the winners earned their first Xfinity Series victories at Road America – Nelson Piquet Jr. (2012), Allmendinger (2013), Brendan Gaughan (2014), Michael McDowell (2016) and Jeremy Clements (2017).
The event’s other winners are Carl Edwards (2010), Reed Sorenson (2011), Paul Menard (2015), Justin Allgaier (2018) and Christopher Bell (2019).
There have also been dramatic finishes as four races needed overtime to settle it, with the last coming in McDowell’s 2016 triumph.
Road America poses a different challenge, too, in that so-called road-course ringers will often compete. This weekend’s race is no different.
Indy car driver R.C. Enerson is set to make his Xfinity Series debut in the No. 07 SS-Green Light Racing Chevrolet. Enerson has four career NTT IndyCar Series starts, with his latest coming last season at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course where he finished 17th.
Andy Lally will drive the No. 02 Our Motorsports Chevrolet at Road America. Lally, who was the 2011 Cup Series Rookie of the Year, has competed on various road courses in the Xfinity Series. He has five top 10s in 11 starts, with three of those starts coming at Road America. His best finish at Road America is seventh in 2014.
Jade Buford will be in the No. 6 for JD Motorsports. Buford, an IMSA racer, finished 14th in his NASCAR debut on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
Allmendinger will also be back this weekend for Kaulig Racing. He has run a part-time schedule for the organization in 2020 and scored his first NASCAR oval victory at Atlanta Motor Speedway in June. He also finished fourth at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course. He was the pole sitter for last year’s race at Road America.
“I think it’s harder on those guys further back in the pack, guys like Allmendinger, who because of points have to start back there,” Briscoe said.
Allmendinger will start the race 33rd in the 37-car field.
“At least the guys, for the most part, up front all have experience,” Briscoe said. “There are a couple rookies who have never been to Road America. But they at least have stock car experience. There’s some guys back there with Allmendinger that haven’t raced in a stock car in a whole or it may be their second or third race. I think that’s a little bit tougher back there.”
Briscoe added, “It’s definitely going to be an exciting thing to watch for the fans. It’s going to be a little nerve-wracking on our end, knowing anything can happen in those first few laps.”