The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season has already been a career year for Chase Briscoe. With three more wins to his name and a first-ever berth in the championship four already sealed, the 30-year-old is more than living up to expectations in his first year behind the wheel of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
But while brighter days could be ahead for Briscoe, who will go up against teammate Denny Hamlin for the title in Phoenix, with the two other spots still yet to be decided, he recently admitted that just a year ago, his emotional state was far less upbeat.
Reflecting on his year with JGR, Briscoe couldn’t help but recall his tear-filled final race with Stewart-Haas Racing in 2024, a season that proved the last for the team.
“I remember literally firing up the engines on pit road for the race and crying my eyes out just because of the end of that chapter of my life, that it was just Stewart-Haas and what it meant to me and just how I dreamed of just racing a Cup race,” he admitted on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
“But then to drive the car that I was literally the biggest fan of, and just the relationships that I had built with Stewart-Haas, I mean, I’d been there for eight, nearly nine years.
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“And, the people on the 14 car were guys that came to family birthday parties and gender reveal parties, and I had such a bond with them, and I knew that chapter in my life was closing, that I would never work with those guys again, probably.
“And I just remember sitting there and like realizing that moment and it all hitting as it wants and yeah, just crying. And obviously, as soon as we kind of roll off pit road, all that went away.”
After his 29th-place finish at Phoenix, Briscoe made the move to replace Martin Truex Jr. at JGR, and the rest is history. Three wins, 12 top fives, and four top 20s later, and Briscoe could yet win his first Cup Series crown, something he commented he never would have believed 12 months ago.
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“If you would have told me at Phoenix last fall when I was sitting there on the grid that a year later I’d be having a one in four shot to win the championship, I probably truthfully wouldn’t have believed you,” he said. “And yeah, it’s just crazy the difference a year can make, and certainly excited for the opportunity.”
As things stand heading into the Round of 8 finale at Martinsville Speedway, Briscoe’s JGR teammate Christopher Bell is 37 points above the cutoff line for Phoenix, followed by Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson one point below him. They could yet be usurped by the Team Penske duo of Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney, as well as Hendrick’s William Byron and Chase Elliott, who are all technically still in with a shot or making the cut.