Briscoe Proving He Belongs

By Dennis Krause

Since joining Joe Gibbs Racing from the Stewart - Haas team at the beginning of the year, Chase Briscoe has felt he needed to prove he belonged. Expectations are always high at JGR and it was the only team that didn’t ask Briscoe to bring sponsorship money.

After a slow start to the season, Briscoe has risen to the occasion. With his win in Sunday’s Cookout Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, Briscoe not only advances to the Round of 12 in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, he also leads the standings for the first time in his career.

“Yeah, it’s nice,” said Briscoe. “I mean, truthfully, all week, especially today, even yesterday, I never once even thought about the Playoffs ’cause truthfully the round of 16. With our speed, as long as we just go out and run halfway decent, we should make it.

“I try to not even think about the Playoffs at all today or yesterday or throughout the weekend. I mean, it’s definitely nice to start off, be able to lock our way into the round of 12. I’m way more excited about seven playoff points for the next couple rounds, right? That’s something we were at a pretty big deficit at. To add seven, that’s a huge deal going forward. I was way more excited about that than locking into the round of 12.

“It’s definitely nice for us to start our playoffs off in the way we did it. Not just winning, but I felt like we dominated. That’s really cool to do. It’s definitely a great way for us to start. Hopefully we can just ride this momentum now.”

Briscoe led 309 laps in the race to become the first driver since Bobby Allison in the 70’s to lead 300-plus laps in a Southern 500, a far cry from how the season started for Briscoe coming to a high-performing team.

“Yeah, I mean, the expectation was to go and contend for wins, hopefully battle for a championship,” said Briscoe. “I would say it definitely was harder than I anticipated, the first, I don’t know, call it 10 weeks.

“I think, too, I say JGR was off, but [teammate Christopher] Bell was able to go win three in a row there. We were learning so much about ourselves. I was learning the race cars, how different they drove. It definitely took a little more time than I expected.

“I felt like tonight is definitely what we’re capable of kind of week in and week out if we just do our job and perform. The cars are just so good. The execution was there. If we do that, typically we’re in the mix to win. Not necessarily dominate like we did tonight, but typically if we just do our jobs right, we at least should be in the mix. At that point you just have to capitalize on it.”

Throughout his career, Briscoe seems to perform at his best when under pressure, as he did making the Round of 8 on points in ’22 with SHR and nearly making the Championship 4. Why that is, Briscoe claims he doesn’t know.

“I’ve always just loved high-pressure situations. I feel like I just perform better for whatever reason.

“I feel like my whole career has always been a high-pressure situation, right? There was no backup plan. You might only get one race, you got to go perform, show your worth.

“I’ve always felt like every week I’m still auditioning to prove that I belong here. Certainly the higher the pressure, the better I feel like I do for whatever reason. Statistically I typically run better in the playoffs. That mid-summer stretch where there’s not a lot going on I typically struggle. The higher the pressure, the better I do for whatever reason. I guess it’s a good trait to have, especially with what the playoffs are. I don’t know.

“I don’t know that anything’s really trained me for it other than just, yeah, every time I got in a car, I felt like I was auditioning to prove that I belonged here. Because of that, it puts you always in a high-pressure situation.”

Does Briscoe’s dominant Darlington win change any expectations for the playoffs? If it has, Briscoe won’t let on.

“The expectation, we’re not saying,” said Briscoe. “We need to make it to the Round of 4. It seems like at JGR, really the it’s the Final Four, but at least if you don’t make it to Round of 8, it’s a huge failure.

“When you look at the sport in general, there’s eight to ten really good cars. It’s JGR and Hendrick cars and a couple of Penske cars. If you aren’t one of those top eight, it normally means you didn’t have the most successful season.

“Starting the playoffs as a team, we feel we’re definitely capable of being Championship 4 caliber, and even the champion. It’s a matter of putting 10 weeks together. Obviously we started week one the way we need to.

“I know they’re not always going to come as easy as they did tonight. If we can continue to bring the speed and execute and be on pit road the way we were, it makes it where I feel like we start internally realizing we’re definitely capable of this. Hopefully other people will, too.”

With nine races to go in the playoffs, Briscoe finally feels he’s holding up his end of the bargain with Joe Gibbs Racing.

“Yeah, I would love to still have more wins at this point, right? I definitely feel like I’m getting to the point where I feel comfortable. I feel like now people aren’t questioning it as much, Why did they go with him?

“I definitely feel like I’m holding up my end of the bargain, per se.

“I definitely feel like I’m getting to the point where I’m showing my worth to Coach [Gibbs]. Hopefully they feel the same, that they made the right choice.

“But yeah, certainly the more you can win I feel like the more just naturally it seems like it was the right choice.”

Dennis Krause has spent decades covering all forms of motorsports, including over 40 Indianapolis 500s, with stints at WIBA Radio, PIT PASS - Radio’s Premier Motorsports Magazine and Motorsports Minute. Follow him on X @DennisKrause500 or motorsportsminute.bluesky.social or motorsportsminute on Threads or MotorsportsMinute+ on Facebook.

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