Chase Briscoe may now be making his future at Joe Gibbs Racing, already stamping his authority with a third-place finish in his rookie campaign with the team, but the road that brought him to one of NASCAR’s best teams traces back to Brad Keselowski.
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Before Briscoe ever settled into a JGR cockpit, he cut his teeth in the ARCA Menards Series, where he collected six wins in 2016 and caught the eye of the 2012 Cup champion. Keselowski saw enough raw speed and discipline to hand him the keys to Brad Keselowski Racing’s No. 29 truck in 2017, a season that turned into both a breakthrough and a farewell.
Briscoe delivered the team a parting gift before it shut down operations at year’s end, winning the Homestead-Miami finale and planting his name firmly on NASCAR’s radar. The win also secured a sixth-place finish in the standings, giving BKR a send-off worthy of its reputation and giving Briscoe the launchpad his career needed.
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver’s performance opened the door to the Xfinity Series, where he landed at Roush Fenway Racing. And even as his path eventually carried him to the Cup Series in 2021, Briscoe never severed the mentor line that tied him to Keselowski.
In a 2019 conversation with Frontstretch, Briscoe admitted he still leaned on the veteran whenever he hit unfamiliar ground or needed clarity.
“Yeah, me, and Brad still talk. If I’m struggling somewhere I’ll text him, or if I’ve never been somewhere before, I’ll still talk to him. When I see him, I’ll still talk to him,” he said.
“So yeah, me, and Brad have always been really good. Brad’s always been a huge supporter of mine and always believed in me, so it’s nice that a guy like that, of that caliber, still believes in a guy like me.”
Reflecting on the closure of Brad Keselowski Racing, Briscoe admitted it stunned him. Yet he acknowledged that the abrupt ending accelerated everything.
Without the shutdown, he might not have run the 2018 ROVAL race, a start that turned into his first Xfinity win, or positioned himself to join Stewart-Haas Racing in the series. The wrench forced him into opportunities that reshaped his career far sooner than planned.
Briscoe’s original roadmap called for two seasons under Keselowski’s banner, followed by two years in Xfinity. Instead, the collapse of BKR pushed him ahead of schedule, a jump-start he now views as pivotal to reaching the Cup Series as quickly as he did.
That fast-tracked journey has placed him shoulder-to-shoulder with the mentor who once opened the door for him. Briscoe has since tallied five Cup wins across five seasons, with four of them coming in the last two years, signaling a driver hitting his stride at precisely the right moment.
