Chase Briscoe Talks Championship Push and Return to Homestead-Miami Speedway

Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 19 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing, is currently fifth in points in the race for the NASCAR Cup Series championship, which will be decided at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Nov. 8. He is locked into the first round of the playoffs.

We interviewed him by phone on Aug. 19.

Briscoe finished a strong second to Joey Logano last Sunday at Richmond. We asked him his thoughts on the race.

“The race was just broken up a lot,” Briscoe said.

“Like, there’d be a run where I would be really good compared to Joey, then there’d be another run where Joey was better than me. And this would come back and forth.

“So, yeah, really that second-to-last run, Joey was just phenomenal compared to what my car was and was able to kind of chew into — I think I had a three-and-a-half-second lead at one point — and he was able to run that all the way down and actually pass me as we were coming to pit road.

“Then that final run, I thought I was a little bit better than him, but just not better enough to drive up there and pass him. I probably needed another five or so laps to really work him over.

“So, close, just not close enough. You have that sometimes. It was obviously a good race. It was a lot of fun having that back and forth all night long. You knew it was going to come down to one of us and who could execute. And, yeah, we came up just a little bit short.”

Our next question to Chase was: You’re currently fifth in points and are locked into the playoffs. How does that affect your strategy for the next two races, New Hampshire and Daytona? And how does it put the team in the right kind of mindset and give it the right kind of momentum going into the playoffs after Daytona?

“Yeah, I feel like we’ve made huge strides in the points and put ourselves back in position to really have a pathway to the championship,” Briscoe said. “To be fifth in points, or really in the top five in points, was the goal really the whole season long.

“Early on in the season, I think we were 37th in points. So, to be able to kind of rally from that and get back into the top five has been a huge comeback for us.

“And New Hampshire, it’s all about just trying to build as big of a buffer as we can for when we go to Daytona. Obviously, there’s a ton of unpredictability that can happen there. So, just trying to do everything we can so when we leave Daytona, we end up fifth in points.

“I think fourth is probably out of the question unless we were able to somehow win both races. But just trying to end up fifth, that’s what will give us the best chance at a championship, and that’s the goal.”

Briscoe is in his second season at Joe Gibbs Racing, where he moved after Stewart-Haas Racing shut down. We asked him about the organization.

“The culture is great,” Briscoe said. “I mean, it definitely has winning rooted into everything at its foundation. That’s what their whole model is based off of. They have to win races in order to get partners to come on board and everything else.

“Everything we do is to try to win. And I think that’s why you do see the results that we have. It’s just everything is focused around winning and nothing else, where other companies sometimes have other distractions.

“So, yeah, the culture is great here. Obviously, it starts at the top with Coach Gibbs. When Stewart-Haas shut down, I thought it could have been the worst thing that ever happened to my career and, truthfully, it’s probably the best thing that’s ever happened to it.

“That one door shutting opened up another door, and it was a great door to go through. So, it is just a great place to be. I’m excited to be here and hopefully can be here for, truthfully, my entire career.”

We concluded the interview by asking Chase to tell us a little about his thoughts on Homestead as a track and Homestead as an experience.

“Yeah, Homestead is right at the top for me as my favorite racetrack,” Briscoe said. “I absolutely love the racetrack. It’s just so fun. It’s really the perfect racetrack for our cars.

“You can run all over the racetrack. You can make passes. You have tire wear. It’s just a perfect racetrack when you look at how it races and, as a driver, you can really make a difference there. So, I’ve always loved the racetrack.

“You know, the area is obviously super nice, especially at that time of the year, early November. It’s always nice to get down there and get some warmer weather and do some of the South Florida things like going fishing or going offshore.

“And it’s always a fun time to go down to Miami and go to the Keys and everything that it has to offer. So, yeah, definitely excited to get down there at the end of the year.”

Watch for more NASCAR and Homestead-Miami Speedway stories as we move toward Championship Weekend, Nov. 6–8. Tickets are available at www.homesteadmiamispeedway.com.