Briscoe Spreads Holiday Cheer with Bike Giveaway in Hometown
December 18, 2023 | By Curt Cavin, Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Let’s see Santa make a delivery like the one NASCAR Cup Series driver Chase Briscoe made Monday in his hometown of Mitchell, Indiana.
Briscoe’s idea to bring more than 700 new bicycles to the Southern Indiana community of about 5,000 literally became the talk of the town. Those attending the elementary school where the bikes were distributed couldn’t believe they were receiving such a gift.
Consider that one in seven people in the small Lawrence County town went home with a new ride, and the hometown hero was there to hand them out.
Briscoe, who turned 29 last week, said he could not believe the reaction.
“It was wild to see (the bicycles) all here,” he said. “I’d seen them in pictures but never all in one place. So, it was cool for that.
“Then, I thought the (students) would be excited, but I had no idea how excited they would get. I didn’t even know they knew who I was.”
Not only do most of them do, they told him they watch his races on television.
The bicycle drop was driven by Briscoe receiving an offer from the Gene Haas Foundation. Briscoe drives the No. 14 Ford of Stewart Haas Racing.
Armed with financial support, Briscoe turned to a partner of the past three years – Huffy Bikes – to see if such distribution could happen.
“When we started thinking about this it felt like a crazy idea that was probably never going to happen,” Briscoe said. “For one, how were we going to build 700 bikes? Where were we going to put 700 bikes? How would we get them all delivered?
“But Huffy has a lot of great resources.”
Briscoe said riding a Huffy through Mitchell was among his first connections to motorsports.
“It’s the first thing I ever raced even though I wasn’t racing anybody,” he said.
Members of the Mitchell community, including high school students, teachers and business leaders, helped assemble the bicycles. Briscoe rewarded those individuals with tickets to next year’s Brickyard Weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (July 20-21).
NASCAR’s Brickyard 400 presented by PPG for the Cup Series and the Pennzoil 250 for the Xfinity Series will be held on the oval on the 30th anniversary of the first Brickyard 400 won by Jeff Gordon.
“A lot of people from here probably have never had the opportunity to go (to IMS), and I wanted to let them experience what we do every weekend,” Briscoe said of NASCAR racing. “All the drivers have a hometown, but (few) of them come from this small of community that really helps each other.”
Information about NASCAR’s weekend at IMS can be found at www.indianapolismotorspeedway.com.