The Charlotte area is the central hub of big-time stock car racing and serves as the new home to thousands of transplants. Many have truly become North Carolinians, but don't necessarily count Chase Briscoe as a member of this group.
He remains Indiana through and through.
"The whole state means a lot to me from a support standpoint," Briscoe told AltDriver in the Joe Gibbs Racing hauler. "I get a ton of support there, but my whole family still lives there. I'm the only one who doesn't live there now.
"I still go back. I love it. I would love to move back one day. It's just what home is to me."
Not that Briscoe has anything against Charlotte. The metropolitan area is his home now, but it just doesn't feel the same.
The different atmosphere could be attributed to the lack of cornfields located next to the Arby's drive-thru, but it goes so much further for the two-time Cup Series winner.
One big difference is the traffic in the two areas. As of 2023, the estimated population of the Charlotte metropolitan area was 3.8 million. Stoplights go for miles, and it can sometimes take 45 minutes to travel three miles down the road.
This is not the case for Mitchell, Indiana, where Briscoe grew up.
"My hometown Mitchell, it's one stoplight, 4,000 people," Briscoe said. "Like I can still name probably every single person I went to school with that was in my grade. There's 90 to 100 of us, and it's just definitely different.
"I remember growing up, Bloomington was our closest big town. You wanna go do something, it was a 25-minute drive, and that seemed like forever. You didn't wanna drive 25 minutes, where like now, living in Charlotte, everything's 45 minutes."
Briscoe only gets one or two opportunities each year to go home to Mitchell -- one for work and one for fun -- but he makes the most of them.
He takes in high school basketball games and talks to the friends he had growing up. He spends time with the family members that he rarely gets to see due to the grueling NASCAR schedule.
He takes his wife Marissa to Walmart so they can just walk around, something that was a national pastime for small-town kids in decades past. Sometimes, he just drives around the countryside and takes in the smells of freshly cut grass.
For Briscoe, it's like going back in time, especially when he gets to eat comfort food that is only available in Indiana.
"My grandma makes these homemade cinnamon rolls," Briscoe said with a big smile on his face. "You can only get them on Christmas. She doesn't make them any other time of the year, and they're the most incredible thing ever.
"My wife's tried to replicate them. My cousins have tried to replicate them. They're never quite the same as when my grandma makes them like that. There's just something different about them."
One of these opportunities to go home is the annual race weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the nation's most iconic motorsports venue. The massive facility is located roughly two hours away from Briscoe's hometown, so it is a fitting location for his fellow Hoosiers to show up en masse and provide support.
This is very noticeable to Briscoe, who estimates that around 500 people from Mitchell make the trip to IMS for the Cup Series race.
"Every other weekend of the year, when I get announced at driver intros, it's not really cheers, it's not really boos," Briscoe said. "It's just kind of like I'm just another guy. Even walking through the garage, like I'm just another guy.
"But in Indy, I almost feel like that's what Dale Jr. feels like. Everywhere I go, I'm like the mayor almost; everybody talks to me and tells me where they're from. Indy is a super special weekend for me."
These ties to Indiana are also evident with Briscoe's hobbies and personal sponsorship deals.
Indiana is a hotbed for sprint car racing, something Briscoe has regularly done while rising through the NASCAR ranks. It's something he continues to do while chasing Cup wins and championships with Joe Gibbs Racing.
He also signed an ambassador deal last year with Fleddermann von Rieste, an Indiana-based watchmaker. He continues to seek other Indiana-based companies that he could work with in the future to continue highlighting his home state. The Bloomington-based Cook Group is an example.
Photo credit: Fleddermann von Rieste
Fun fact: Fleddermann von Rieste recently sent one of Briscoe's signature watches halfway around the world. A person who grew up in Mitchell had moved to Korea and then ordered one of these watches after hearing about the ambassador deal.
As Briscoe said, it's just another example of Hoosiers supporting Hoosiers and continuing to show pride in their home state.
"It's just different when you're from a small town, and I think definitely that, for me, has been something that's been amazing," Briscoe said.
"Even on bad days, you get on social media or whatever, and the fan base is ripping you apart, but you can get on Facebook or whatever, and everybody in Mitchell is pumping me up -- or even just Lawrence County in general."