The one driver who’s arguably been the most impressive during the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season is Chase Briscoe.

Taking over the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing car this season, he’s managed to do a phenomenal job so far. Stepping into the shoes of Martin Truex Jr. could not have been an easy task. Additionally, Briscoe is currently on the verge of creating NASCAR history.

Chase Briscoe Could Kick Off the Playoffs With an Unusual NASCAR Record

When Briscoe came into the Cup Series in 2021, it was with a struggling Stewart-Haas Racing team, where his talent wasn’t nurtured to its full extent. In the four seasons that he ran with Tony Stewart’s team, he could only get two wins and 13 top-five finishes. But this season with JGR, Briscoe has shown his true race craft while having access to top equipment.

In the 26-race-long regular season, Briscoe managed to get one win, 10 top fives, and 12 top 10s. But where he was most dominant was in the qualifying sessions, having bagged more pole starts than any driver in the season so far: six. What’s even more impressive is that out of those six pole starts, three came in Crown Jewel events — the Daytona 500, the Coca-Cola 600, and the Brickyard 400.

While this is already a highly impressive stat, Briscoe could make it even better. This season, NASCAR is kicking off the Cup Series playoffs with the Southern 500 at Darlington.

If Briscoe manages to get a pole start in a fourth Crown Jewel event, he’d be the first driver in NASCAR history to do so.

Can Chase Briscoe become the first driver in NASCAR history to win the pole for all four Crown Jewel races in a single season?

Daytona 500: 1st
Coca-Cola 600: 1st
Brickyard 400: 1st
Southern 500: ?? pic.twitter.com/TTD7SWn9Ms

— NASCAR Insights (@NASCARInsights) August 29, 2025

Briscoe’s already had his best Cup Series season so far, but with 10 more races, there’s no telling what else the Indiana native could achieve. Certainly, he’s feeling positive about his chances of also winning the Cup Series title this year. While this would be his third playoffs, with SHR, he never felt he was in contention for the title.

At Media Day, he spoke on this, saying, “I was telling my wife, this is really the first time I have legitimately thought I could win a Cup championship. In the past, I could make the playoffs, and that was exciting, but down deep, you kind of know the odds of you winning are pretty slim.”

Clearly, the No. 19 car is fast, if not the fastest in the field. Even though Briscoe only won once so far, he managed to finish in the runner-up position on three other occasions: at Sonoma, Dover, and Iowa. If Briscoe can get a couple of wins in the playoffs, he could end up in the Championship Four and have a legitimate chance to take home the title at Phoenix.

“Now, not to say I’m the favorite by any means, but I feel like I have a legitimate chance to go do it. It definitely feels different this time around just knowing you have a shot. I would say this playoffs just feels different because of that,” Briscoe added.