Chase Briscoe is above the cutline heading into Saturday's race at Bristol Motor Speedway. He can easily move on to the Round of 12 with a solid performance. He could just as easily fall below the cutline through miscues on pit road.
Briscoe is not concerned. He sees a fired-up pit crew ready to deliver under the lights of the Last Great Colosseum.
"They just walk around with a different strut, like they do have a little bit of swagger to them," Briscoe said about his crew to AltDriver. "You can just tell they're confident."
Briscoe's over-the-wall crew consists of five members -- front tire changer Shayne Pipala, rear tire changer Dakota Ratcliff, tire carrier Jon Bernal, jackman Kapil Fletcher, and fuel man Corey Coppola. This crew has been with the No. 14 team throughout the season as they have dealt with highs and lows alike.
The regular-season finale at Darlington was an example of the good times. The group delivered on a day when Briscoe went from well below the cutline to taking a playoff spot. They avoided mistakes on pit road, and they helped put him in a position to win his first race since the 2022 season.
This was a race that took the No. 14 team from being glum about Stewart-Haas Racing shutting down to being excited about a possible deep playoff run.
"Darlington, they honestly did the best job they've done the entire season," Briscoe said. "And I think for them, just the confidence that comes along with that and knowing that they can compete with those teams on pit road, is something that I don't even know if we knew that we could do, truthfully, before Darlington.
"I've seen a huge difference just in them over the course of the last two weeks and I'm confident going into Bristol that they're gonna be on it."
The No. 14 crew will have to be at the top of its game once again. After all, the 500-lap race has several pit stops. Each one is an opportunity to gain or lose positions.
The spring race at Bristol, which also had 500 laps, saw the leaders making nine stops during a heavy tire wear race. The expectation is that the tires will have a similar falloff during Saturday's night race, so the pit crews will play a pivotal role once again.
Briscoe, the quarterback of the No. 14 team, is well aware of this fact, so he has a simple message for his crew.
"'You guys just have to keep us in the ball game,'" Briscoe said. "You can't have 15, 16-second pit stops where you lose all these positions. We don't have to have eight-second pit stops every time. It would be awesome if we did.
"I would not complain at all if we gained spots every time down pit road, but we just can't be losing two, three, four spots every time we come down pit road, so I think just having that situational awareness, being solid.
"That will be my message to them is, 'You've got to keep us in the ball game.'"
If this crew delivers as Briscoe believes they can, it will only give him an advantage heading into the elimination race. At that point, it will be up to him to avoid crashes on the track and penalties for speeding on pit road.
Pulling off the perfect race will take everyone on the No. 14 team performing at their highest level. Briscoe is ready for this challenge. He says that he performs his best when his back is against the wall and he is facing immense pressure.
The Indiana driver believes that his crew is also ready to deliver for him once again. He's seen how they've prepared at the shop, and he's seen how they've embraced the pressure of the playoffs at the track.
"I know that Bristol will be no different and I can assure you that they're hungrier than any other pit crew on pit road," Briscoe said.