"I didn’t know that": Chase Briscoe surprised over achieving what Tony Stewart never could in his NASCAR career

Chase Briscoe recently expressed his surprise at discovering an unusual aspect of Tony Stewart's NASCAR career. Briscoe booked his spot in the playoffs with a famous win at Darlington, the final race of the regular season.

The win was the first for Stewart Haas Racing and came just months after the team announced its impending closure at the end of the 2024 season. Aside from the fact that the victory was significant for Briscoe's 2024 campaign and the SHR narrative as a whole, his victory accomplished something else that even Tony Stewart was unable to: winning at Darlington.

Throughout his distinguished NASCAR career, Stewart clinched 3 championships and 49 victories. Despite his impressive track record, a win at Darlington Raceway remained elusive. Notably, Stewart achieved wins at all but 3 tracks (Darlington, Rockingham, and Kentucky) out of the 24 he competed on. When Briscoe was told that Stewart never won a race at Darlington, he said,

"I didn’t know that, it’s cool. That’s something that, honestly I thought he’d won one at some point, whether it’s the Joe Gibbs days. It’s pretty cool. The names and the pictures on that trophy are pretty humbling. Just the fact that mine is going to be on there forever definitely doesn’t feel like I’m deserving to be on there…" [1:12]

Briscoe also expressed the significance of his win at Darlington. He viewed winning a race and concluding SHR's regular season on a positive note as 'a really big deal.'

"As just a Stewart Haas Racing fan that car and our team deserve to be in the victory lane. That’s what Stewart Haas is known for, is winning races and winning championships. Obviously it’d been a long time since we were able to do either of those, so it’s nice to have a win on the column for 2024," Briscoe said.

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Chase Briscoe aims to replicate Tony Stewart's 2011 Cup championship run

After his victory at Darlington, Chase Briscoe highlighted the importance of the win for the workplace atmosphere at SHR. He explained that the victory has injected a renewed sense of motivation into the organization, which is months away from imminent closure.

The victory has also reinforced the belief that the #14 team can replicate the feat that Tony Stewart's leadership accomplished in 2011. Briscoe stated that he is optimistic about following his boss' path to a third Cup championship. In 2011, Stewart won the Cup after a winless regular season but secured five victories in the playoffs.

"It's going to be a wild final 10 weeks and I wouldn't be surprised if we have another Tony Stewart-type 2011 championship run because I feel like as a company, we're that motivated right now and everybody is fired up and it's going to be a lot of fun," Briscoe said.

It will be interesting to observe how the 29-year-old's playoff campaign unfolds. His playoff journey will commence at Atlanta, where he has qualified in the tenth position.