Long: Victory is as much relief as a celebration for Chase Briscoe
LONG POND, Pa. — It was a year and a day ago Christopher Bell let slip that Chase Briscoe would join Joe Gibbs Racing for the 2025 season, taking the spot vacated by Martin Truex Jr.
Briscoe would join a team that entered this season on a 52-race winless streak. There had been chances to win. Sometimes circumstances prevented a victory. Other times it was a lack of execution.
Through the first 16 races this season, Briscoe and crew chief James Small won four poles and scored five top-five finishes but had yet to win. Briscoe talked of how challenging it was to adjust to the Joe Gibbs Racing cars after having spent the past four seasons at Stewart-Haas Racing.
The pressure built on Briscoe. And Small.
As Sunday's rain-delayed race at Pocono moved into the evening, Briscoe was in position to deliver a victory.
And then came the final pit stop.
Briscoe left too early.
He didn't have enough fuel to make it to the end unless there was a caution.
Behind him was teammate Denny Hamlin, the winningest driver at Pocono.
Yet, just as it seemed the No. 19 team would be foiled again, Briscoe got a key caution, saved enough fuel and held off Hamlin to win.
Nate Ryan,
The celebration was as much relief as joy.
Briscoe called it his 'least-enjoyable' Cup win. Of course, it's a small sample. Sunday was his third series victory.
Don't be misled. Briscoe still enjoyed the victory but the expectation of winning is different at Joe Gibbs Racing.
The 30-year-old driver from Indiana felt that pressure.
'Last couple weeks especially, I've just been like this huge weight on my shoulders, unlike anything I've ever experienced before,' Briscoe said. '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 (after the win0. 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.'
That's no longer a worry
Briscoe's performance is why Joe Gibbs Racing signed him shortly after SHR announced that it would cease operations after the season.
'We did a total research on it,' car owner Joe Gibbs told NBC Sports about the pursuit of Briscoe. 'We came down to, 'Hey, Chase was the person that we thought was young and could give us a real future.''
Briscoe provided another piece for an organization that had Christopher Bell, likely a future series champion, youngster Ty Gibbs and Hamlin, the winningest driver at JGR and future Hall of Famer.
Briscoe's hire also provided JGR with the opportunity to pair him with a crew chief other than Small had it wanted. This was the same organization that moved Chris Gabehart from being Hamlin's crew chief after last season to overseeing the competition department. But Small was kept with Briscoe.
'It's been a lot of work,' Small said. 'From where he came from, there wasn't much accountability. Nobody was holding his feet to the fire. That's probably been a big wake-up call for him.'
Said Briscoe of the change: 'It's definitely more work, but it's because they are at such a high level. So yeah, it's been an adjustment for me. Even just racing with teammates that are winning has been an adjustment for me. It's definitely been a big learning curve.'
There's more to do.
'We're still a work in progress,' Small said of he, Briscoe and the No. 19 team. 'We're far from being where we think we can be. At this point he's meeting our expectations. I still expect a lot from him. He's only going to get better, I know.'
One thing they can work on is when Briscoe leaves his pit stall. On the final stop, which came at Lap 119 of the 160-lap race, Briscoe was to stay in the pit stall until Small told him to go as they waited on fuel.
That didn't happen.
'As the tires got done, I knew we were sitting there waiting on fuel,' Briscoe said. 'I started revving the engine up so I wouldn't stall it when I left. I think James said, 'Wait.' As soon as I heard anything, I just went.'
Small said when Briscoe left pit road he was nine laps short of making it to the finish on the 2.5-mile track.
Hamlin pitted the next lap and waited for fuel. Briscoe soon realized his issue when he saw Hamlin well behind him — the benefit of a shorter pit stop than Hamlin since Briscoe didn't wait for fuel.
'I knew I was probably not in the best of shape,' Briscoe said. 'I instantly started saving fuel down the straightaways.'
A caution helped Briscoe get closer to making it. He maintained the lead on the restart and Hamlin could not get by and finished second.
'Just too aero tight,' Hamlin said of the condition of running behind another car. 'Didn't have enough really fall-off in the tire to make it to where handling was a big issue. … I tried to the best I could make runs at him. I'd back off, cool everything down to make another run and as soon as I'd get within one or two car lengths, it would heat the tires up and then I couldn't make a run on him.
'Truthfully, I thought he'd run out of gas.'
He wasn't the only one.
'I fully expected to run out of fuel,' Briscoe said.
Instead, he had enough to win.
And do a burnout.
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