Chase Briscoe finished fourth in the Cup Series race at Kansas City last Sunday. It was his fourth top 5 finish of the season and gave yet another reason to believe that he can be a superior driver with Joe Gibbs Racing than he ever has been throughout his career. Awareness of this led him to take a subtle jab at his former boss, Tony Stewart, when speaking to the press.
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Briscoe spent four years with Stewart-Haas Racing before jumping ship. Never once during that time did he have the confidence of becoming a Cup Series champion as strongly as he does now.
He only had three top 5 finishes throughout 2024. Only a third of the 2025 season has gone by, and he has already surpassed that mark. Why would confidence, of all, be lacking after such apparent differences?
Speaking with the press, he said, “Kevin Harvick says it all the time. You can’t drive a slow car fast. Every time we came to Kansas, I ran 25th to 30th. As soon as I got out [today], I said, ‘Well, I guess it maybe wasn’t me this whole time.’
“We just always go backwards every race, and you can only drive the car as fast as it’ll go. JGR’s cars’ potential is just unbelievable compared to what I’m used to.”
During the Daytona media day earlier this year, he mentioned, “I was telling my wife a few weeks ago that this is the first time I’ve ever felt like I could legitimately win a Cup championship. At SHR (Stewart-Haas Racing), I told myself I could, but that was probably not going to happen.”
He added, “Where, like here (JGR), I can legitimately see myself getting to Phoenix and being a contender, which I’ve never really felt that way before.”
It is notable that neither he nor his crew chief, James Small, is taking things easily despite the career-best run. Small told the press after the result in Kansas, “I think we have a pretty good understanding of the car every week now. It’s just about execution on the day. When you have a clean day, we can run like this. We’ve proved all year. We’re still hurting ourselves.”
“Our stage points are a [expletive] joke, and we just need to start the races up front and maintain track position, and our life will get a lot easier.”
So, they’re both aware that the No. 19 Toyota Camry XSE is far more capable than what has been extracted from it thus far. It is Briscoe who will have to win a championship with it, or get close to doing so, and prove himself worthy of being its driver.
