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‘It’s more than just a number': Chase Briscoe promoted to NASCAR Cup Series, becomes heir to iconic No. 14

Briscoe is scheduled to make his debut in the No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang in the 2021 Daytona 500.

Veteran NASCAR Cup Series driver Clint Bowyer is taking his aw-shucks, Midwest wit-and-wisdom to the Fox Sports TV booth next season, and who knows, maybe a future gig on Comedy Central.

The resulting open seat at Stewart-Haas Racing will be filled by Chase Briscoe, a nine-race winner in the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2020 and heir to motorsports' iconic No. 14.

“To me it’s more than just a number,” Briscoe said during a Zoom meeting with national media on Tuesday. “I truly care about that number and the history of that number going from A.J. Foyt to Tony Stewart and even Clint. There’s a lot of pride in that number being a dirt [track] guy and to drive that car and drive for Stewart-Haas. It’s still unbelievable. I’ve been texting with my mom and dad and wife about how it all just doesn’t seem real. I’m ready to get to Daytona though, that’s for sure.”

Briscoe is scheduled to make his debut in the No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang in the 2021 Daytona 500, NASCAR’s version of the Super Bowl, at Daytona International Speedway on Feb. 14. But he has plenty of unfinished Xfinity business this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, site of Saturday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 (3 p.m., CDT, NBC Sports Network). Briscoe will start the 200-lap/300-miler around TMS' high-banked/1.5-mile oval from pole position.

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Briscoe set a Ford Racing season record for Xfinity Series wins with his ninth last Saturday at Kansas Speedway. The previous mark of eight was set by Carl Edwards in 2011. Briscoe swept both stages and led 159 of 200 laps around the 1.5-mile oval. Briscoe’s victory secured the first spot in the series' Championship 4 at Phoenix Raceway on Nov. 7, where a title and trophy would put an exclamation point on a blockbuster season.

“It’s still doesn’t really feel real,” said Briscoe, a 25-year-old native of Mitchell, Ind., and graduate of the Ford Performance driver development program. “When I first signed with Ford, obviously the goal was to go Cup racing and for me, I would always tell them that Stewart-Haas was my dream situation because I was a diehard Tony fan. The goal and dream was always the No. 14 car, but I don’t think it was always necessarily believable that it was going to happen the way it all worked out.”

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Briscoe has compiled 11 wins, 30 top-five, 50 top-10 and two poles during a three-year Xfinity career that began in 2018.

Bowyer’s decision to accept Fox’s offer to wear makeup and work alongside former four-time Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon and host Mike Joy cleared the way for Briscoe’s promotion.

“Oh my gosh. Makeup is going to be the worst part about all of it,” said Bowyer, a 41-year-old native of Emporia, Kan. “Honestly, I never really said this, I’m an old kid from Kansas. If you’re gonna put makeup on me, it’s gonna take the tackle box. It’s gonna take everything you’ve got. I need to get some pointers from my wife or somebody, but it’s gonna take all of it — all of the arsenal of makeup to make my ugly [expletive] look good.”

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Bowyer’s 538-race Cup resume features 10 wins, 82 top-fives, 225 top-10s and four poles dating to his single-race debut in 2005. Bowyer’s grit and self-deprecating humor are traits that Stewart, a NASCAR Hall of Famer and co-owner of SHR with businessman Gene Haas, will miss at the team’s campus in Kannapolis, N.C.

“I love Clint,” said Stewart, a three-time Cup champion. "You’re not gonna have more fun with anybody than Clint Bowyer and you’re not gonna have anybody that’s got any more passion, drive and desire than Clint Bowyer, so losing him is a detriment, obviously. But looking down the road in the future of Stewart-Haas Racing, knowing that Clint was going to the booth we had an opportunity to get Chase _ I think now is the right time to get him in a car and work on the future.

“The competition level goes up when you go to the Cup Series, but we feel and have a lot of confidence that he has what it takes to be a great Cup driver.”

John Sturbin is a senior writer at RacinToday.com, based in Fort Worth. He can be contacted at jsturbin@racintoday.com.

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