The No. 14 car that Chase Briscoe commands today has a glorious history under its hood. It carried Tony Stewart to his third and final Cup Series championship in 2011 and also gave Briscoe his first win (Phoenix, 2022) in the premier tier. The machine’s loyal tenure over the years is why the upcoming race at the Brickyard will be an emotional affair for both Briscoe and Stewart.
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This Sunday will be the final time the No. 14 car takes to the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Oval. Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) is set to close shop at the end of the 2024 season and with it, the car will be decommissioned from its roster. Briscoe was a big fan of Stewart as a youngster and to be the last one driving the vehicle that his idol raced in is something straight out of the storybooks for him.
He told Racer Magazine, “That was something that didn’t even hit me until the week after the announcement came out. We were doing an interview with IMS and they mentioned that this would be the only time I would get to run 14 there, and I didn’t even think about it.” When he told Stewart about the realization, the co-owner was equally taken aback as well.
Briscoe believes the Brickyard 400 will be a memorable event despite the melancholy it carries. He continued, “It’s going to be a sad weekend, truthfully, but it is special. As a kid, if you had told me I get to run a Brickyard 400 driving for Tony Stewart, I would have never believed it. It’s definitely a cool opportunity.” Camera flashes will be aplenty in the No. 14 garage this weekend.
Tony Stewart gets emotional bidding farewell to his car
Stewart will be feeling a stronger connection to the car and the track. He is a two-time Indianapolis winner in the Cup Series and also the 1996 Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year. He won a total of 16 races with the No. 14 car. These achievements have led him to deeply empathize with the emotions of Briscoe ahead of the car’s final Indy run in SHR colors.
He said, “There’s a lot of tradition there. A.J. [Foyt] was my hero, and Chase says that I was his hero, which kind of completes the circle of how special Indy is and how special the 14 is to us. I’m excited for him. This isn’t going to be his last one [but] it is going to be our last one.”
Briscoe will be driving the No. 17 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry XSE beginning in 2025. But his time in the No. 14 will always hold a special place in his heart.
