Chase Briscoe recently spoke about the many challenges as well as positive aspects of Joe Gibbs Racing vis-a-vis his former team, Stewart-Haas Racing. However, he highlighted an unexpected factor that was a big plus for him at SHR. He badly misses it, in fact.
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Briscoe’s shift to Joe Gibbs Racing was announced last year following the closure of Stewart-Haas Racing’s operations at the end of the season, and Martin Truex Jr.’s retirement. His stint with JGR has not been smooth so far. He won the pole position at the 2025 Daytona 500 and finished the race in fourth place. However, an L2 penalty marred the performance.
The penalty, handed to Briscoe for unauthorized modifications to the No. 19 Toyota’s spoiler, demoted him to P39 place with a negative points tally of -67. During the Ambetter Health 400 race last weekend, Briscoe crossed the finish line in P21 after starting P25. He also made contact with the wall in the quad-oval during the race, rebounding into Chris Buescher, spinning the RFK Racing driver.
So, the #19 driver’s transition has been challenging. And, he also misses “the parking situation at the shop”, which Briscoe said is better at SHR compared to JGR.
“At SHR, the parking was like 10 feet from the door no matter where you parked. At JGR, the parking is not as ideal,” explained Briscoe, before speaking about JGR’s challenging shop layout.
“My other answer is the shop layout. I still don’t know my way around JGR at all. It is the biggest maze of mazes I’ve ever seen. A lot of it is it started as one shop, and it just keeps expanding,” said Briscoe.
“They just keep adding on. SHR was just this one building and everything funneled to one spot, so it was super easy to navigate. And I’m sure if I was at JGR for seven years, I would feel like it’s pretty easy. But being the new guy, the shop layout and parking at SHR was definitely better to me,” he added.
Briscoe is also coping with, and adapting to a cultural shift at Joe Gibbs Racing.
Briscoe details the challenges of transition to JGR
The big shift in team culture at JGR has required Briscoe to cast aside his methods from Stewart-Haas Racing. In a conversation with Claire B. Lang, he shared that he had initially underestimated how daunting the transition would be.
Briscoe confessed he never anticipated such a huge difference. He acknowledged that the JGR team has so much more going on in terms of resources, data, analytics, and more. It all seems overwhelming for Briscoe as of now.
“It’s really opened my eyes up there. This is how vastly different it is. It’s kind of crazy to think that’s what I’ve raced against my entire career or so,” remarked Briscoe.
Stepping into the shoes of someone like Truex Jr. is no small challenge either. Nonetheless, Briscoe’s performance at Daytona has set the bar high despite the penalty. The team and fans alike will have great expectations from him as the season progresses.
