Playoff berth is nice, but ‘we need to do something about it,’ says Briscoe

The huge sigh of relief that Chase Briscoe felt earlier this summer has run out.

Briscoe released that sigh in June when he won at Pocono Raceway. The reason was two-fold: he had won in his new Joe Gibbs Racing ride, and in doing so, earned a berth in the postseason. Both of those things were important to Briscoe because it’s expected when one drives for Gibbs. It’s not good job security to fail at both of those missions.

But now that the postseason has arrived with the kickoff race at Darlington Raceway (Sunday, 6pm ET), Briscoe is aware the job isn’t over. It’s time for what comes next.

“We need to go and perform in the playoffs,” Briscoe said.

The first round has Briscoe sitting as the No. 8 seed. He is the defending winner of the Southern 500 at Darlington, which was the final race of the regular season in 2024. At that time, the victory was what put Briscoe and his former team, Stewart-Haas Racing, in the playoffs. It ended up being the final win for SHR.

Briscoe advanced out of the first round of the postseason last year, which might have been overachieving. The expectations were low for a team and organization that had struggled in the final few years of its existence. Joe Gibbs Racing, meanwhile, has become accustomed to its drivers winning in the final weeks of the season and contending for a spot in the championship race.

“That’s the difference now,” Briscoe said. “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 just excited that they made the playoffs. Here, 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. So, it’s a different mentality. For me, yeah, I think we’re fully capable of making it to the final four.

“From a speed standpoint, I would say that arguably we are one of the better cars week in and week out; it’s just a matter of putting the whole race together. That’s where you see the William Byrons and the Dennys [Hamlin] of the world – they’re doing a better job right now of putting the whole race together than what we do.

"A lot of that falls on myself, going back to what I said with the risk versus the reward. So, I think as I get better understanding and more experience, that’ll be better for me. I’m definitely glad we were able to win a race and make the playoffs, but now that we’re here, we need to do something about it.”

It will be a “way different” race team that goes to battle with Briscoe on Sunday night. While he has worked to adjust to driving a Joe Gibbs car, the team has been working throughout the year to consistently put together clean races. It was a struggle through the early months, but Briscoe felt the turning point was at the end of May and the Coca-Cola 600.

Briscoe, crew chief James Small and the No. 19 team finished the regular season eighth in the championship standings. It put Briscoe on pace with his two teammates, who also made the postseason with Christopher Bell at fifth in points and Denny Hamlin at sixth in points. The three of them have combined for eight wins.

The final 10 weeks of the season loom large, with plenty of racing to go. And what has already been a career season for Briscoe has the chance to get even better.

“I was telling my wife that [a] couple weeks ago: ‘This is really the first time I’ve ever legitimately thought I could win a Cup championship,’” he said. “In the past, you make the playoffs and it’s exciting, but down deep, you kind of know that the odds of you winning are pretty slim. Whereas now, not to say that I’m the favorite by any means, but I feel like I have a legitimate chance to go do it, whereas at SHR, you never really felt like you had a legitimate shot to do it.

“It definitely feels different this time around knowing that you have a shot, and I would say this playoffs feels different because of that.”

The highest Briscoe has finished in points in his Cup Series career is ninth, in 2022.