Chase Briscoe speaks candidly on high expectations at JGR

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Chase Briscoe has commented on the change in expectations he has had to deal with since moving from Stewart-Haas Racing to JGR. He said that getting to the Championship 4 is the least he expects from himself and his team.

A candidate in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs last season with a Cinderella story, Briscoe has turned into a real contender in the championship this time around. This underdog performance achieved its apex with his breakthrough victory at the 2024 Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington, but his playoff run was cut short.

In a striking contrast, Briscoe now competes with Joe Gibbs Racing in superior gear, and he now feels that he does indeed have an honest shot to win the Cup, and that he can compete on the same level.

At Joe Gibbs Racing, the expectations are very high; qualifying for the playoffs is no longer satisfactory. As compared to his years at SHR, Briscoe admits that it is a disaster to miss out on the Round of 8 or the Championship 4. His legitimacy as a contender is supported by the fact that he won at Pocono and had 10 top-five finishes and six pole positions in the regular season.

Taylor Kitchen reported Chase Briscoe’s comments in an article for Sports Illustrated:

“That’s the difference now is that [at] SHR, did you want to get knocked out of the Round of 16? No, but if you did, there was nobody like, ‘man, that was a disappointing season’. They were still excited they made the Playoffs. Where here [Joe Gibbs Racing], it’s almost like if you don’t make the Round of 8, that’s kind of a failure on the year and really the final four even, right?”

Chase Briscoe began the season with great success, with pole at the Daytona 500 and a fourth place finish in the race. But he was temporarily handed a penalty, which was reversed on appeal. His qualifying consistency has been seen him clinch poles at the Coca-Cola 600, Nashville, Michigan, Brickyard 400, and Iowa Speedway, and is evidence of his speed and capability to compete at the front.

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Chase Briscoe on fuel saving becoming the new normal in NASCAR

Chase Briscoe has claimed that fuel conservation has become almost instinctual for him in the NASCAR Cup Series, a habit developed over the last few years and one that often pays dividends on race day.

In the Next Gen era, saving fuel is now a dominant strategy due to the lack of a fuel gauge and the need for teams to rely on algorithms, throttle inputs, and pit strategies to manage roughly 70 gallons per race. Briscoe described via NASCAR.com:

“It’s become a habit. Even weeks where we don’t need to be, I’m saving fuel just for the sake of it because you never know what can happen and it eventually adds up. That’s just been something I’ve really kind of burned into my mind over the course of the last couple of years in Cup racing, and it’s obviously worked out for us.”

This season, Chase Briscoe's approach was especially critical at Pocono, where a pit stop miscue forced him to save fuel and ultimately earned him his first win of the year.