Ryan Briscoe, NTT DATA Chip Ganassi Racing
The cast: Race engineer – Eric Cowdin. Race strategist – Jim McGee. Chief mechanic – Ricky Davis
Twitter: @Ryan_Briscoe, @CGRTeams
The car: No. 8 Chevrolet-powered NTT DATA
The driver: Turned 33 on Sept. 24 ... from Sydney, Australia ... he and his family are moving into their new home in Connecticut next week.
Season finish: Briscoe placed 11th in the Verizon IndyCar Series standings in his first season back with the team since 2005. He reached ninth in the standings following consecutive top-10 finishes at Houston2, Pocono and Iowa.
The gist: Briscoe was tied in points with Sebastien Bourdais, who was placed 10th in the standings by virtue of winning a race. Both drivers were two points behind Marco Andretti for ninth. … Briscoe and series champion Will Power were the only drivers without a DNF in the 18 races this season. Consequently, Briscoe was second to Power in laps completed (2,374 of 2,395). … Through 129 Indy car starts since 2005, Briscoe has seven victories (most recently Sonoma in 2012) and 13 poles (most recently Indianapolis in 2012). He’s been running at the finish in 90 races, has 70 top-10 finishes and led in 48 races for 1,435 laps.
Season stats: Briscoe had a high finish of fourth at Pocono and low of 18th in the Indianapolis 500, though he advanced 12 positions relative to his starting spot in the 200-lap race. … He had a season-high three-race streak of top-10 finishes of eighth at Houston2, fourth at Pocono and ninth at Iowa. He closed the season with three top 10s in the final four races, with a seventh place after starting 11th at Auto Club Speedway in the finale. … Briscoe posted 10 top 10s overall and led one race (Belle Isle1) for a total of five laps. … He had high qualifying position of fourth at Iowa and Milwaukee and low of 30th for the Indianapolis 500. He participated in the Firestone Fast Six at Belle Isle and Sonoma (qualifying fifth in both). ... He was not among the 20 drivers to post a podium finish.
Year over year: 2013 best start ninth (17.7 average), best finish 12th (16.3 average) in seven races. 2014 best start fourth (12.2 average), best finish of fourth (10.6 average) in 18 races.
Video: Briscoe reviews the season
He said it: “It was a building year because everything was brand new with new drivers and crews. As the year went on, our performance got stronger and pit stops got faster. Everything was gelling better as the year went on, and the team as a whole all four cars got stronger as the year went on.”
The chart (below): Looking at how Briscoe finished relative to his qualifying position in the 18 races:
Click to download the hi-res Infographic
