Pressure is inherent with being a NASCAR Cup driver. You’re paid a lot of money to perform and win races and contend for championships for both your team and your sponsors.
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In his first season of driving for Joe Gibbs Racing — after Stewart-Haas Racing closed at the end of last season — Chase Briscoe admitted that prior to Sunday’s race at Pocono Raceway, he was starting to worry about his job security.
Even when he took the lead with 33 laps to go in Sunday’s race, Briscoe once again reflected upon his job status. “I still can’t believe it because I was just waiting to run out of fuel at any moment,” Briscoe said with a nervous laugh on the Amazon Prime post-race show.
Even though he laughed, Briscoe knows all about pressure to perform and to win, a condition he’s been faced with almost from when he climbed behind the wheel of a race car for the first time as a kid.
“For me growing up, like every opportunity, you had to prove yourself and it’s the same especially now more than ever at a Joe Gibbs Racing car,” Briscoe said. “When you come there you are expected to win. I remember literally when I was doing my contract, they said, ‘Out of 40 playoff attempts, we’ve made it 38 times. You better make the playoffs.’
“The last couple weeks I’ve been getting more and more nervous. More guys have been winning and we haven’t been winning. My wife was like, ‘What’s the matter?’ I was like, ‘I have to win or I’m gonna lose my job.’
“So it’s nice to finally just get the monkey off our back. I feel like we’ve had speed all year, we just haven’t been able to execute. Today we finally executed.”
Briscoe had two very important things to worry about in the closing laps: whether he had enough fuel left in his Toyota, as well as teammate Denny Hamlin — who has seven career Cup wins at Pocono — closing in.
“You don’t want to lose to your teammate especially. So you throw in all the variables that we had today,” Briscoe said. “With Denny obviously being the greatest of all time here and then obviously trying to get my first win for JGR, it was just an amazing day for sure.”
What might have happened if Briscoe hadn’t won?
This season, 11 Cup drivers have taken at least one victory in the first 17 races. That means there are still nine races left in the NASCAR Cup regular season for drivers who are still winless to break through.
That’s why Sunday’s win was so crucial for Briscoe. He now is all but assured of making the playoffs. Briscoe said, “With all the races coming up, there can be a lot of winners and you could easily miss the playoffs even if you’re really high up in points.”
And how’s this for an ironic topper to his day: Briscoe’s win came exactly one year and one day after future JGR teammate Christopher Bell let it slip last year that Briscoe had signed with JGR for 2025 and beyond.
