Chase Briscoe takes questions during Daytona 500 Media Day. (Photo: Cornnell Chu | The Podium Finish)
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — When Chase Briscoe made the NASCAR Cup Series Round of 8 and nearly won himself into the championship as a sophomore, it certainly opened a few eyes around the garage.
Maybe that’s why it came as such a shock when Briscoe finished 30th in driver’s points last season.
Amid several stretches without top-20 finishes and a massive L3 penalty for a counterfeit part, Briscoe’s 2023 season epitomized Murphy’s Law. The 29-year-old from Mitchell, Indiana recorded just four top fives — three of which came consecutively in the spring — with eight top 10s as Stewart-Haas Racing struggled across the board.
For Briscoe, 2024 is a complete reset.
That included a reset inside the shop, as SHR rebranded, introduced a new logo and completed renovations. But more importantly, he gained a pair of new teammates with Josh Berry in the No. 4 car and Noah Gragson behind the wheel of the No. 10.
And that’s not to mention the Ford Mustang Dark Horse, which debuted during the Feb. 3 Busch Light Clash.
“It’s almost like I moved to a different team, truthfully,” Briscoe said during Daytona 500 Media Day. “I had to throw out all my shirts. We had to get new stuff. My teammates are all new with the exception of only one. The good thing is my team, the 14 team, stayed. Literally, every single person except for the truck driver is the same, so, from that standpoint, everything is the same, but everything else – just the process of how we do things at Stewart-Haas, the logo, the color on the walls at the shop, everything is totally different, so it’s kind of like moving to a new place.
“There has been way more togetherness, just how the drivers interact together. We all work out, so we see each other almost every single day now where in the past I would see Kevin [Harvick] on Sunday and wouldn’t see him again until Saturday. We definitely from that side of things we see each other a lot more and work around each other a lot more … In the past, it was kind of four different teams that worked under one roof, where now it’s four teams kind of collectively working towards the same goal for one organization.
“I definitely think the whole organization has hit the reset button. Tony said it in the XM interview the other week. There’s no need to look back. We are at the bottom, so there’s really no need to be worried. I mean, there’s a lot of reasons to be worried, but there’s no point in looking back and doing things like that, so I think, for us, we’re all motivated.”
(Photo: Cornnell Chu | The Podium Finish)
But in Year 4, Briscoe has become the veteran. As Kevin Harvick stepped aside for the FOX Sports booth and Aric Almirola scaled down to part-time Xfinity, it makes Briscoe SHR’s longest tenured driver.
Ryan Preece, who’s entering his fifth full-time season, is in just his second with SHR. Gragson and Berry each have minimal Cup experience — Gragson has 39 starts and Berry has 12, while Harvick and Almirola combined for 1,286.
So in an off-season of change, Briscoe is one of the few constants.
“It’s definitely four guys that truthfully are extremely hungry,” Briscoe said. “All four of us only have one Cup win combined, so all the guys have a lot to prove. We all know what we’re capable of. We all kind of have grown up as complete opposites as we can, but we’ve all kind of have grown up the same way for the most part by just grinding throughout our career, so that part of it is exciting. It’s just different now with not having Kevin and Aric there with how much more I’m gonna have to speak up and stand up for things I believe in, so all of that will be interesting and it will be something I learn as I go along.”
As Briscoe searches to get his No. 14 machine back in the playoffs, he’ll have a massive opportunity Sunday in the Daytona 500.
Historically, Briscoe hasn’t thrived on superspeedways but picked up his only top 10 at Daytona International Speedway with a third-place finish in 2022’s Great American Race. Last year, Briscoe led 67 laps in the regular-season finale before crashing out late. He also has a pair of top 10s at Daytona in the Xfiniy Series.
It’s the Daytona 500, and of course, Briscoe wants to etch his name into history. But big picture, a strong finish resulting in early season momentum is equally important.
Chase Briscoe turns his qualifying lap at Daytona on Wednesday. (Photo: Cornnell Chu | The Podium Finish)
“There’s a lot that from a momentum standpoint this weekend is extremely important,” he explained. “It’s important to come out of here with a good weekend. Points are gonna be really important all year long, so for us to have four cars come out of here in a good situation would be really good and just be a good kickstart to our year.
“If you look back in the past, where you ended at the end of the West Coast swing is pretty much where you stayed within three or four spots in points. It’s just so hard to dig out of that hole and every year I feel like you have to expect to have three or four bad finishes – like 30th-plus, and those are kind of your mulligans for the year, and you don’t want to use those up at Daytona or Talladega or Atlanta, so, for us, points are extremely important. I feel like there’s gonna be more than 16 winners, so points are gonna be at an all-time high, but even if there’s not 16 winners, points determine your playoff berth.
“It’s a big weekend for us as a company and hopefully we can prove a lot of people wrong.”
Briscoe placed 14th in time trials Wednesday and will start the second duel Thursday from seventh. The duels will set the field for the Daytona 500, which is scheduled for Sunday at 2:30 p.m. ET on FOX.
