Two days after learning that his wife, Marissa, had suffered a miscarriage, Chase Briscoe won the 200-mile Xfinity Series Race at Darlington Raceway on May 21. Briscoe held off Kyle Busch and others in one of the most emotional races in recent memory.
“It was never a question of if I was going to race or not race,” Briscoe said on The Zach Gelb Show. “I knew that getting in the race car would probably be the best therapy for me. I even told Marissa on Wednesday I was going to win for her. Down deep, I didn’t necessarily know I was going to win by any means, but I knew I was going to give it the hardest try I could. That was really my way of being able to show that I’m there for her, I’m doing everything I can because I can’t even fathom what she’s going through.”
Briscoe held a narrow lead in the final laps of the 147-lap race, ultimately edging out Busch in the end.
“Everything worked out perfect,” Briscoe said. “We caught cautions at the right time, our pitstops were perfect – just every little detail that it takes to win a race just went in our favor. Things like that normally don’t happen. So to be able to do that and beat Kyle Busch, who’s probably one of the best of all time in our sport, is a huge thing and just made it that much sweeter.”
On May 19, Marissa had a 12-week checkup on her pregnancy, with Briscoe attending the routine appointment virtually. There, the couple learned that their daughter’s heartbeat could not be detected.
Unable to comfort his wife in person, Briscoe raced with a heavy heart.
“It definitely is a different type of feeling of victory,” he said. “Normally when we win, we’re happy, but this one was more of just relief. There was a lot of sadness involved, too. I was literally sobbing after the checkered came. Even while I was out there, mentally I wasn’t 100 percent in the race. I was thinking about other things. I know Marissa was at home watching, I knew our families were both watching – so there was just a lot on my shoulders. Like I said, I was just thinking about them a lot.
“It definitely doesn’t feel like another victory, just because we didn’t celebrate,” Briscoe continued. “The celebration that we have in NASCAR right now with everything going on with COVID-19 is totally different. We don’t have victory lane with our team. We have to stay separate from each other, so I didn’t really get to celebrate anything. But I think it’s still a celebration in a sense when I got home and got to see Marissa and we were able to talk about our day. And then [to] see that the response from the fans and other athletes and drivers was, I think, the biggest thing that we’ve ever experienced.”