Joe Gibbs Racing’s newest recruit, Chase Briscoe, who has stepped in to fill the shoes of Martin Truex Jr., certainly has a tall order in front of him.
Advertisement
Though he has yet to find victory lane following his first nine starts this season, his performance has improved over the same stretch last year. In 2024, Briscoe had no top-five finishes and just two top-10s by this point.
This season, after narrowly avoiding a penalty at Daytona, where he finished fourth, Briscoe backed it up with another P4 at Homestead, a top-10 at Martinsville, and most recently, yet another P4 at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Speaking after his strong showing at Bristol, Briscoe reflected on his growing comfort level within the team. “Yeah, I think this is our third or fourth top five. I would say today was the first race like I’ve felt really comfortable outside of Homestead,” he remarked during his post-race interview.
“But yeah, there’s still definitely some little things that I’m still trying to get the feel for, and James (Smalls, Briscoe’s crew chief) is obviously still trying to figure me out as well. So, it’s going to take a little bit of time, but I would say it’s encouraging the finishes and the speed we’ve had. We don’t feel like we’re 100% at all, and we’re still running up front. So, that’s encouraging for sure,” he continued.
His highest finish in the final standings with SHR came in 2022 when he secured ninth place. While he did bag his first Cup Series win last year at Darlington, consistent results were few and far between.
What makes his current run even more interesting is the fact that, apart from two ARCA Menards Series races in 2015 where he briefly drove a Dodge car, Briscoe had spent his entire career behind the wheel of Ford machinery.
Now, in his maiden campaign with Toyota, he appears to be settling into the #19 Toyota Camry XSE with ease. His performances suggest he’s not only adapted quickly but is already starting to turn heads with real results.
Did Briscoe take a dig at Tony Stewart’s SHR team?
Throughout the off-season, Chase Briscoe chose to stay off the dirt tracks — a decision influenced not only by the arrival of his newborn twins but most likely also by his desire to develop a stronger connection with his new team at Joe Gibbs Racing. Even before the season started at Daytona, Briscoe exuded a renewed confidence, both in himself and in the #19 team.
Praising the culture at JGR, Briscoe remarked that the atmosphere goes beyond just handling pressure — it carries an expectation of good performance at the highest level. He pointed out that at JGR, there’s no excuse not to run well, and that mindset is quite different from what he experienced during his time at Stewart-Haas Racing.
Briscoe admitted that although he told himself he could contend for a title while at SHR, deep down, he never truly believed it. That has now changed. For the first time in his career, he genuinely sees himself racing for a championship at Phoenix.
Whether it’s the elevated standards, the competitive environment, or the sheer weight of expectation, Briscoe acknowledged a shift in how he views his potential — and his career.
