The 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season was not a good year to be a driver for Stewart-Haas Racing. The four drivers who drove for the banner in its final year struggled with the team’s management courtesy of the sudden fiasco of the organization shutting shop. The extremeness of the tensions that prevailed is reflected by the words of Chase Briscoe that came in late November before the Awards Banquet.
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The former #14 Ford Mustang driver shockingly revealed that the drivers were not even allowed to enter the team’s race shop following the season finale in Phoenix. He had to clean his locker in the team hauler and store his things in the Joe Gibbs Racing #19 hauler, his new team. The toxicity in the atmosphere was unwarranted, to say the least.
However, Briscoe was quick to come to terms with it. He said, “Honestly, I already kind of turned the chapters because we were locked out of the building and everything. We couldn’t even go back. I mean, truthfully, I’ve already cleaned my closet out. I kept some stuff. But I mean, there’s really no SHR in existence anymore, right?” The shop now runs under the name of the Haas Factory Team.
Stewart-Haas Racing was a team with a glorious past. For it to leave the field with such an instance is heartbreaking. Moreover, Briscoe was the one driver who helped it save face in 2024 by reaching victory lane.
He made it into the playoffs and gave reason for the team and its employees to keep the energy flowing inside the organization till the very end.
Briscoe prepares for next chapter with Joe Gibbs Racing
“Everything happens for a good reason” is the motto that Briscoe will keep in his mind as he heads into the 2025 season. A few weeks with Joe Gibbs Racing and he is already aware of how advanced the game is on this side of the fence. He said, “At SHR, if we ran eighth, that was a good weekend.”
“Where at JGR, the expectation is way different. It’s like, well, if we ran eighth, why did we run eighth? It’s just a totally different vibe and atmosphere.” What the Truex replacement is experiencing is the need for the grind that comes with driving for a top-tier team in the Cup Series.
Each day carries a surprise for him. He added with a strong hint of complete pleasure in his voice, “Even when I was at the shop last week, I mean, they were literally trying to find ounces they can shave off my helmet. That’s stuff that I never even thought about at SHR, right?”
Briscoe will soon forget all the bad memories with his former team, hoping to fight at the sharp end of the field during the upcoming 2025 season with his newfound alliance with one of NASCAR’s strongest teams in history.
