JGR’s Chase Briscoe: “We’re not even close to our full capability”

Written by Sean McKean

Credit: Meg Oliphant / Getty Images

Following 2024, former champion Martin Truex Jr. finally retired from NASCAR – celebrating an illustrious career. This left a notable gap in Cup and Xfinity powerhouse Joe Gibbs Racing. In his void, Chase Briscoe was drafted to replace the New Jersey native for 2025 and onwards.

Briscoe spent his entire Cup career with Stewart-Haas Racing, driving their flagship No. 14 car. He took two wins across his tenure here, but the team shutting down following 2024 left him briefly rideless. Now taking the opportunity at Joe Gibbs, he now experiences more stability in his career.

Throughout his ascending up the NASCAR ladder, Briscoe was Ford’s protege, through and through. Now switching to Toyota and JGR, the 2024 Southern 500 winner spoke on the difference in atmosphere in comparison to Stewart-Haas Racing in a press conference attended by DIVEBOMB.

“It's definitely different,” Briscoe started. “Just the expectation is so much higher in a place like JGR. 

“I was just telling my dad actually where, you know, after the Bristol race, all four of the JGR cars were in the top eight. And if we would've had all four SHR cars in the top ten, like, we would have been, like, going nuts, right? It would have been the best day ever, at least towards the end of SHR [in 2024]. In JGR, at the competition meeting, you would’ve thought we ran 30th or worse, like it's just the expectation is so different. Like you're expected to go win and be the best car, and the company's expected to be the best company every single week.”

With these steeper expectations, Briscoe welcomes the challenge it brings him, but he’s not been able to maximise his Sundays – despite notching four top-fives to begin this season. Why is that?

“I feel like we're not even close to, like, our full capability, and a lot of it just comes down to Saturdays, in qualifying. The cars have so much more potential than anything I'm used to driving in the Cup series, and a lot of the time in qualifying, I'm just under-driving. The car contains so much more [pace]. Like mentally I'm so used to having to do the lift way back here, and it's like this car [JGR] will just take you. 

“So if I start qualifying better, I feel like it's going to make things way, way better, which in the past has always been one of my stronger things, is qualifying. It's just been an adjustment from that standpoint. I feel like once we start qualifying up front, you know, our days will just get easier because right now, we are coming from the back all day long, and it just makes things challenging, even in the points situation. I think we've literally had 17 stage wins all year long and are 12th in points. 

“We've been getting the finishes, but we haven't been running a front all day,” Briscoe concluded.

Chase Briscoe will take the green flag in the Coca-Cola 600 this Sunday at 18:00 local (23:00 UK).