Chase Briscoe is looking to make memories both on and off the racetrack during his meaningful return to Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

On Saturday, Briscoe narrowly won pole position during NASCAR Cup Series qualifying for the Brickyard 400. Denny Hamlin looked to be putting up a good fight, but crashed out of qualifying while over two-tenths up on the pole time before offering an explanation for the incident. 

Briscoe — who is still adapting to the heightened expectations that come with being a Joe Gibbs Racing driver — averaged 183.165 mph in single-lap qualifying, with his best lap of 49.136 seconds beating outside polesitter Bubba Wallace by a mere .013 seconds.

The dominant performance marked Briscoe’s fifth pole of the 2025 campaign, making him the first driver in NASCAR history to win poles for the Daytona 500, Coca-Cola 600 and Brickyard 400 in the same season.

On the heels of the strong showing, Briscoe revealed that Indianapolis Motor Speedway is one of his favorite tracks on the Cup Series calendar — though not just because of the success he’s achieved there.

During race weekend, the Indiana native was able to return home to Mitchell — around a 90 minute drive from the track — and visit his extended family, who he heartbreakingly admits he only gets to see twice a year due to his jampacked schedule.

“It’s always fun to come home and recharge my batteries,” he explained. “It’s nice to come home and spend time with my grandparents. My whole family still lives here, the only chance I get to spend with them is Brickyard week and Christmas.”

While back in his home state, Briscoe feeds off the energy emanating from the stands while feeling the support of the Hoosier crowd. “You just find this extra 5, 10% you didn’t know you had, and you really put that pressure on yourself to perform here when you come here,” he explained.

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“And I think a lot of it is because the Hoosier fan base just gets behind you unlike anywhere else. I mean, there’s the race track we go to where when I hear a driver from that state, the crowd’s going nuts. It’s different in the state of Indiana and for me to be able to be that guy for the fans here, it’s just really, really cool.”

Looking ahead to Sunday, Briscoe asserted that coasting down victory lane at Indianapolis Motor Speedway would mark “the biggest win” of his career. Two decades prior, NASCAR Hall of Famer and fellow Hoosier Tony Stewart lived out his dream by winning the 2005 Brickyard 400.

“I was driving home and just kind of running laps through my head, and, yeah, I’ve never really thought about winning a race before,” Briscoe said. “It was just kind of like imagining what it would be like to win here and do it in the Brickyard 400 and I’ve watched Tony’s race the night before just randomly on YouTube, and just watching his celebration, everything.

“I just kind of put myself in that moment just as an Indiana guy, and it’s just different. I don’t know how to explain it. I just thought about it. I mean, there’s a quick 20-second thought, but just got goosebumps literally as I was driving down the road thinking about it.

“If I was able to win the Brickyard 400, it would be the biggest win of my career,” he continued. “I don’t think I could ever win a race that would mean more to me. I just was talking about how many times I came here as a kid and what this place meant to me. So for me, yeah, winning on Sunday, there’s no race I’d rather win in the world.”