Comparisons in NASCAR are inevitable. Who’s the best? Who’s the worst? How did (fill in a driver’s name) compare to (fill in another driver’s name)?
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Chase Briscoe was with Stewart-Haas Racing for four years, 2021-2024, before the team closed its doors after last season. Briscoe was a teammate of Kevin Harvick for the first three years of his SHR tenure before the future NASCAR Hall of Famer retired after the 2023 season.
With SHR’s implosion, Briscoe moved to Joe Gibbs Racing, essentially replacing Martin Truex Jr., who retired at the end of last season.
In 21 races thus far with JGR, Briscoe has gotten to know teammate Denny Hamlin, who on Friday announced that he had signed a contract extension through the 2027 season to remain with JGR, quite well, and talked about the impact Hamlin, now in his 20th season with JGR, has made upon him.
And also how Briscoe compared Hamlin to Harvick during his media availability on Friday before Sunday’s Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
“If you look at the success at JGR, Denny is a massive part of it,” Briscoe said. “He’s got 59 career wins (actually 58), and all 59 (58) have been at JGR. When you think about a guy of Denny’s caliber, he’s going to be a first-ballot Hall of Famer.
“For him to be able to still be at the top of his game, if not probably in the peak of his career right now, why would you not try to keep that going? I know for me, it has been really interesting and eye-opening to be able to be teammates with Denny and kind of be inside the walls and see how he approaches every single week of the season.”
Then, Briscoe discussed why he compares Hamlin to Harvick and the similarities between the two.
“It does remind me a lot of Harvick, when I first got to SHR, their way of going about their prepping for the weekend and intensity level. I would say that Denny has way more stuff going on outside of the racetrack than Kevin has, and he still manages to put the time in and the effort in, week in and week out, and that is why he’s as successful as he is.
“It has been a lot of fun for me to get to know Denny over the last five, six months and be teammates with him. I would say it makes us all strive to be better, whether it’s myself, Ty (Gibbs), or (Christopher) Bell. I’m glad that he will be there for the future too.”
At 44, Hamlin is currently the oldest active full-time driver in the Cup Series. If he fulfills the two years of his new contract extension, he’ll be nearly 47. And Hamlin has long said that he hopes to spend at least one season driving for the Cup team he co-owns with NBA icon Michael Jordan, 23XI Racing. That means Hamlin may race until he’s almost 48 years old.
Hamlin Has Become a Friend and Mentor to Briscoe
What impresses the 30-year-old Briscoe the most about Hamlin?
“Truthfully, how hard he works,” Briscoe said. “From the outside looking in, the fact that he has a ton of distractions with the 23XI stuff. He’s obviously got a lot going on at home with three kids – I can definitely relate to that – and he’s literally there more than probably anybody, as far as sim work goes.
“Week in and week out, he’s in the simulator when I feel like he’s got every reason to jump out of it. Especially, he’s been doing it for 20 years. I had the same misconception with Harvick, where I just figured he does it all of the time. He doesn’t need sim work, but Denny’s put in more sim hours than any of us at JGR. That is kind of the biggest thing I’ve been surprised by, and even how analytical he is.”
“Like every meeting we have, he’s always got data to back up whatever he’s talking about. Whenever we do our post-practice debriefs, he’s looking through every lap, graph, and data.’
Hamlin’s studious approach not only behind the wheel but also closely reviewing all the data from his race car has not only been revelatory to Briscoe, but he’s also started to emulate some of Hamlin’s habits in pursuit of becoming a better driver.
“It is just very eye-opening to how into the analytics and the data he is, and that is something that I’ve never really used in the past,” Briscoe admitted. “I’ve tried to start doing more this year because I’ve seen it makes a difference for him, so I would say that’s probably the biggest thing.”
