Chase Briscoe reflects on overachieving with SHR after historic pole win at Brickyard 400

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Chase Briscoe won the pole for this week’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Named Brickyard 400, this iconic 400-lap event will be televised on TNT Sports from 2 pm ET onwards.

For Briscoe, it was his fifth pole of the season with a lap time of 49.136 seconds (183.165 mph). While doing so, he also edged 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace (183.117 mph) by 0.013 seconds. The duo will begin Sunday’s race 1-2 from Row 1.

Briscoe thinks that his JGR Camry now has the speed to contend for poles each week, unlike when he used to race for Stewart-Haas Racing. Noting the same during a media session at Indianapolis, Briscoe said (2:33),

“I feel like my entire career, qualifying has been a strong suit of mine. At SHR, I feel like a lot of the time we just overachieved, truthfully. Now being able to be at JGR and being in these extremely fast race cars allows me to contend for poles, instead of just contending for a top-10 starting spot or whatever it may be. It's definitely fun to be able to lead the field to the green.”

Briscoe’s stint with Stewart-Haas Racing was short-lived as the team shut down its operations permanently ahead of the 2025 season. The team’s co-owner, Gene Haas, retained one of its four charters and started a new team named Haas Factory Racing just this year.

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When Chase Briscoe snapped a 52-race winless streak for Joe Gibbs Racing

Chase Briscoe joined Joe Gibbs Racing, taking the spot that was left vacant by Martin Truex Jr. The No. 19 team was on a 52-race winless streak at the time, and Briscoe knew that he had to bring the team back to winning ways.

Through the first 16 races of the season, Briscoe picked up four poles and five top-fives but he was still vying for a win. Finally, it happened when the NASCAR Cup Series visited the “Tricky Triangle” in June. Briscoe saved fuel in an electrifying finish, while holding off his teammate Denny Hamlin, a seven-time winner at Pocono Raceway.

“Last couple weeks especially, I’ve just been like this huge weight on my shoulders, unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before,” Chase Briscoe said in a statement. “My wife is, ‘What is going on with you?’ I’m like, I have to win. I don’t think you realize how bad it is if we don’t win a race and lock into the playoffs.’”

“I feel like I honestly weigh a hundred pounds less already. Literally when I was doing my contract with JGR, I remember them showing me the stat thing about how about out of 40 attempts for playoffs, they have made it 38 times. The expectation is if you don’t make the playoffs, you’re not going to be in this car anymore,” he added.

Notably, Chase Briscoe is locked into the playoffs already, thanks to his win at Pocono. He currently ranks eighth in the series standings with 570 points to his name. As such, Ty Gibbs is the only driver from the JGR camp who has yet to bag his maiden win of the 2025 season.