“Obviously, you come to a team like this and you want to believe that you’re capable of winning championships and winning Indy 500s,” he said. “When I came on board on the IndyCar side at the beginning of last year, I had really no expectations of winning the championship that year just because I felt so much like a rookie.”
Scoring his maiden win at Milwaukee - the 300th race victory for Roger Penske as an owner - and adding victories at Mid-Ohio and the exhibition race in his Australian homeland gave rise to prognostications of championship contender. For ‘09, consistency was the objective. Accomplish that and the championship door would open.
“It’s something I’ve definitely been working hard on over the last few years,” Briscoe said. “(Penske Racing president) Tim (Cindric), (teammate) Helio (Castroneves), (consultant) Rick (Mears) have all helped, but probably most importantly has been Roger in my ear for the last three years at every single race. Having him as my strategist at ALMS and the last two years in IndyCar, he’s really helped me strategize each race and go at the right time and wait when I need to wait. If you look at my past, it’s probably exactly what I needed.”
On five 1.5-mile ovals this year that are similar to Homestead-Miami Speedway, Briscoe has two victories (Kentucky and Chicagoland), an average starting position of 3.4 and finish of 5.2.
“I think I’ve improved, and certainly gained confidence going into a race weekend on these types of tracks, ” Briscoe said. “We’ve had great runs at all of them this year—Kansas, Texas, Kentucky and Chicago—so I feel really good about closing out the season with a win.”
That almost assuredly would create a double celebration in Victory Circle at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
“Winning the championship would be huge; the biggest achievement in my career to this point,” he said. “It would be awesome to come back to try to do it again next year.”
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