Chase Briscoe echoes Mamba Smith's best team over best driver playoff take 

Chase Briscoe has weighed in on NASCAR commentator Mamba Smith’s take on NASCAR’s current point system. It all happened during the latest episode of Stacking Pennies with Corey LaJoie, now a product of NASCAR.

Amid a recent thread on X, Smith mentioned that rewarding the best driver and rewarding the best team, given the current points system, are two entirely different things. Reflecting on Smith’s take, former Cup Series driver Corey LaJoie asked Briscoe how much the latter thinks a team has to contribute to the success of its drivers.

Well, a driver does get all the credit in the Victory Lane, but if the team fails to put up a fast car on race days, there isn’t much a driver can do. So Briscoe’s answer was concise and to the point. Recalling last week’s triumph at Darlington, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver said (32:04):

“Look, the driver is important. You can put different drivers in different cars, and the driver will make a difference but you can also put that driver in different cars, and the car's gonna make a huge difference, and the team's gonna make a huge difference.”

“If you would have put me in one of those cars that ran 30th on back, like, maybe I run 25th in it, but I don't win the race in it. There's nothing that I'm going to do at Darlington that is that much different than what the rest of the field is doing,” he further explained.

Chase Briscoe is in his maiden season with JGR and has two wins to his name already. He made the playoffs through his first victory of the year at Pocono back in June.

Chase Briscoe reflects on Joe Gibbs Racing’s potential after winning back-to-back Crown Jewels

With his win at Darlington this past weekend, Chase Briscoe became a two-time, back-to-back Southern 500 winner. Held annually at Darlington Raceway, the Southern 500 is one of the four NASCAR Cup Series Crown Jewel races, the others being the Daytona 500, the Coca-Cola 600, and the Brickyard 400.

The win pushed Briscoe to the P1 in the championship standings. 27 races into the season, the Toyota icon has two wins, 11 top-fives, 13 top-10s, and 2070 points to his name.

“Man, what an incredible Toyota,” Chase Briscoe said during a post-race interview at Darlington. “It was fun to finally be behind the wheel of it. So cool to win two Southern 500s in a row.”

“This is my favorite race of the year. Just because every time we come here, the place is sold out, the atmosphere here is like nowhere else. A great way to start our Playoffs,” he added.

Next up for Chase Briscoe is the Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway, the second race of the Round of 16. Scheduled for Sunday, September 7, the 240-lap feature will be televised on USA with live radio updates on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.