The much-ballyhooed addition of Chase Briscoe to the Joe Gibbs Racing team in the No. 19 car is now official, and the stakes are high for the newest JGR driver.
He knows it. So does his team. Briscoe laid it out in no uncertain terms in his introductory press tour.
“If I don’t win, then the way I look at it is as my career is probably over, because if I can’t perform at this caliber of a race team, then why would any other owner take a chance on me?” Briscoe said.
Briscoe will certainly get the chance to prove he’s an elite driver now, coupled with an elite team. He’s shown quite a bit already in his early career with Stewart-Haas Racing.
He was promoted to the Cup Series in 2021, replacing Clint Bowyer in the No. 14 Mustang.
Since then, Briscoe has secured one win (in 2022 at Phoenix), as well as 12 top-five finishes and 27 top-10 finishes. He’s currently right on the cut line for the playoffs in 2024, trailingJoey Logano‘s 430 points (just inside the cut line) at 405 points. Bubba Wallace also stands in between at 417 points.
Needless to say, it’ll be a nervy finish to the season for Briscoe, particularly with the knowledge that he’ll be headed to a new team in the spring.
The good news for Briscoe is that he had options before joining Joe Gibbs Racing following the SHR closure. He revealed one of them this week.
Chase Briscoe entertained Penske offer
Chase Briscoe shared his experience of the process of joining Joe Gibbs Racing during a press conference on Tuesday. The NASCAR Cup Series driver revealed that he was in talks with Woods Brothers Racing and Team Penske on Monday night after sitting with officials from Joe Gibbs Racing earlier that day.
Briscoe continued to talk to Penske on Tuesday, and Gibbs sent a contract that night.
When the people at Gibbs sent the contract, they said they’d know by Wednesday if Martin Truex Jr. would announce his retirement. On Wednesday, Truex told the team he was retiring, but before Briscoe signed with Gibbs, he still met with Wood Brothers “out of respect for them,” per Kelly Crandall of Racer.
During the press conference, Briscoe talked about fitting into the culture of Joe Gibbs Racing.
“I think just how Joe (Gibbs, owner and founder, Joe Gibbs Racing) is as a person. It starts at the top,” he said. “The faith part of it was big, and obviously they want to do everything they can to win, but I feel like they do it the right way here.”
On3’s Brian Jones also contributed to this report.
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