Chase Briscoe readily admits he’s more laid back than crew chief James Small, and it was the Australian who pushed Briscoe in their first year together to adopt a workout and nutrition plan which in their second season has included monitoring Briscoe’s chocolate intake.
After Briscoe collected his first victory this year at Chicagoland Speedway, the Indiana driver noted that Small had told him if he won the first race at the 1.5-mile track in seven years he could “get some chocolate.”
“He closely watches it,” Briscoe said about his chocolate intake. “I don’t do a great job still.”
The chocolate story began during the off-season when Briscoe and Small, who was a championship-winning engineer in the Australian V8 Supercars Series before moving to NASCAR, traveled to the United Kingdom “as a bonding thing.”
Chase working out:
“They have these Dairy Milk Buttons, and they are unbelievable,” Briscoe explained. “I bought them here in the States through Amazon, and they’re not even close to the same.
“He (Small) went to the UK on the off week a couple of months ago, and he bought a couple. He hadn’t mentioned it to me until today (Sunday). He said, ‘Hey, I got those milk buttons. If you win, you can have them.’ He brought them to me on the front straightaway. It was pretty good.”
A North Carolina native, Deb Williams is an award-winning motorsports journalist who is in her fourth decade covering auto racing. In addition to covering the sport for United Press International, she has written motorsports articles for several newspapers, magazines and websites including espnW.com, USA Today, and The Charlotte Observer. Her awards include the American Motorsports Media Award of Excellence, two-time National Motorsports Press Association writer of the year, and two-time recipient of the Russ Catlin award. She also has won an award in the North Carolina Press Association’s sports feature category. During her career, Deb has been managing editor of GT Motorsports magazine and was with Winston Cup Scene and NASCAR Winston Cup Scene for 18 years, serving as the publication’s editor for 10 years. In 2024 she was inducted into the NMPA Hall of Fame.