On Sunday, 30-year-old Chase Briscoe climbed out of his Toyota Camry XSE, beaming with pride. He’d finished his Cup Series race at Kansas City in fourth place, his best result at the track, and injected fresh energy into Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR). He later made an underwhelming, but true, statement to the press about how his team compares to Hendrick Motorsports (HMS).
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He said, “I feel like we are not the best right now. I feel like Hendrick is a step above. Like you [a reporter] were saying, all four cars kind of seem to hit it better at Hendrick than us right now… I feel like we’re great, right? But I think by JGR standards, they definitely feel like they’re off… As an organisation we are second, or maybe third but for sure in the top-three.”
Briscoe explains his own situation after the Kansas race
One third of the season is now done and dusted. However, Briscoe is still getting adjusted to the newness in his team. Final results have been a mixed bag with five top-10s and four finishes outside the top-20. There is no question that his Camry carries speed. It is the execution that needs more consistency.
Getting into a weekend and completing it to the best of their potential is still a work in progress for the No. 19 team. He said, “I feel like we have a lot that we could do better. Me and James [Small] were just talking about it this week. We are 13th in points with three or four top-fives.”
He continued to say, “We don’t even feel like we are close. We feel like we are so far off right now, just as a team, in our full potential. So, it’s encouraging from that standpoint. When they do kind of figure it out, they start clicking, and hopefully, we can just be up front a lot more.”
Small, his crew chief, delivered a similar view when speaking to the press after the race. He mentioned that Briscoe is always open to suggestions and that there are multiple fronts in which he could improve himself.
The driver must have understood from the result on Sunday that he can be a much better performer with JGR than he ever was with Stewart-Haas Racing. It’s now up to him to take advantage of this knowledge.
