Before the 2018 NASCAR season gets underway in February, a handful of rising stars are competing in another racing series.
Ford drivers Chase Briscoe, Austin Cindric, Cole Custer and Ty Majeski are all competing in the IMSA Continental SportsCar Challenge on Jan. 26 at Daytona International Speedway. They will all be competing in the Xfinity Series for the 2018 NASCAR season.
Briscoe, who just won Rookie of the Year for the Truck Series, said he's looking forward to the challenge of competing at a road course.
"This will be something new and I'm going to do a lot of it this year, so I think it's going to be a good learning curve," Briscoe said via NASCAR.com. I've only run two road courses my entire life and even though we ran decent, I didn't feel like I ever knew what I was doing. Hopefully, I can get to the point by the end of this year where I know what I'm doing on a road course."
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Custer said he thinks it will help him become a better driver.
"I'm really excited about this opportunity," he said. "I've never done any endurance racing, but I'm looking forward to having some fun and learning what it's all about. This is obviously a big race and great way to start the season."
Majeski admitted he doesn't have much road course experience, but the opportunity to run in the race will benefit him in the long run.
"I have virtually no road course experience at all," Majeski said. "I've been on one road course my entire life and that was this past summer when I was sent out to the Ford Performance Driving School in Utah. Outside of that I have not been on a road course, so this will be great for me to get some experience and be around people who know a lot about it."
Briscoe, Cindric and Majeski will all share the No. 60 Ford for Roush Fenway Racing next season, so this gives them another opportunity to work and compete against each other.