HAMPTON, Ga. — Chase Briscoe has already experienced highs and lows as a Joe Gibbs Racing driver.
Three days after starting on the pole and finishing fourth in the 67th annual Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway last weekend, Briscoe and his new team were levied an L2-level penalty after further inspection by NASCAR officials found modifications to the No. 19 Toyota’s spoiler. Briscoe was subsequently docked 100 driver points and 10 playoff points, while JGR was fined $100,000 and stripped of 100 owner points and 10 playoff points.
Crew chief James Small was also suspended for four races. The team indicated it would appeal the ruling, and Small was with the No. 19 team for this weekend’s Cup Series race in Atlanta, with his suspension deferred pending the appeal hearing.
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“I mean, obviously, it’s not ideal, timing-wise, right? You know, especially at the beginning of the season, just as we’re trying to kind of understand each other and get to know each other more,” Briscoe said when speaking about the penalty and the possibility of losing Small for four races. “But, yeah, I mean, it would sting, for sure. But you know, also, there is a ton of depth there at JGR, so I don’t know who they would go with, but, you know, like having (Chris) Gabehart [JGR competition director] and all the people they have in place, you know, at least it’ll be a little bit easier, I guess, than, you know, some other companies would have, would have something like that happen.”
The circumstance isn’t a first for the Indiana native. As driver of the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford, Briscoe was dealt an L3-level penalty in May 2023 after the discovery of a counterfeit part in the No. 14 machine, resulting in the docking of 120 points in both the driver and owner standings, in addition to the loss of 25 playoff points.
Despite similar circumstances, Briscoe believes that the timing difference between when the penalties occurred can be significant in the long term.
“It’s a little bit different, I would say, just with it being right at the beginning of the year,” Briscoe said. “I mean, literally the first race, it’s just … if we don’t win the appeal, you’ve kind of used up your mulligans. You kind of had like, three or four times where you can have a DNF throughout the season and still make the playoffs. But if we don’t win the appeal, I already used those up. I don’t have any weekends that I can have, you know, bad. So, yeah, we’ll definitely change things, but you’re still gonna have to win if you want to be a championship contender. You have to win a race anyways to get into playoffs, and, yeah, hopefully, that’s what we can do.”
Briscoe, who joins his new team after SHR’s closure following the 2024 season’s conclusion, looks to continue to grow his stature within the JGR ranks. And while he and the No. 19 currently sit 45th (!) in the driver standings and minus-67 in the points table, Briscoe believes the adversity does not change where the team currently stands.
“Honestly, I feel like right now, whether we’re facing it or not, like, we’re so integrated right now,” Briscoe said. “Just trying to get to know each other and learn each other, you know, with it being so new that I don’t really feel like it changes anything. You know, I was maybe three or four years in to this team, it would maybe make a little bit of a difference. But right now, like, I’m at the shop a lot, super into trying to build that chemistry and all those things. So adversity, I wouldn’t say, really brings us closer together. So I don’t feel like it changes a whole lot there.”
Despite the sting from the penalty news, Briscoe believes there is plenty of opportunity to make up ground, beginning at Atlanta Motor Speedway, where the No. 19 will start 25th in Sunday’s Ambetter Health 400 (3 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). In eight career Cup starts at the Georgia 1.5-miler, Briscoe has yet to crack the top 10 and has crashed in each of the last two Cup races there, with finishes of 31st and 38th, respectively.
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Regardless of past track results and team penalties, Briscoe believes he can not only contend for race wins but also contest for Cup Series titles.
As a JGR driver, Briscoe believes it more than ever.
“I’m excited for what this opportunity is. You know, I was literally telling Marissa (Briscoe, wife) just last week,” Briscoe said. “Like, in the past, I’ve told myself I can win a Cup championship, but down deep, I’m like, man, the odds are it’s probably not gonna happen, being where I was. Now, I feel like I can legitimately go win a championship. So just from an equipment standpoint, like the expectations and just even the performance, just the small window I’ve had, just Bowman Gray and Daytona, like, it’s been very eye-opening, just what I feel like I’ve been racing against.
“So, I’m super-optimistic for this year, and I feel like, you know, I feel really good about where we’re at as a race team, just being so new, you know, James and I’s chemistry, and even, like, Drew (Herring), my spotter, like I figured we would go to Daytona and there’d be learning curves and things just that are different, and it was honestly, super simple. I felt like I had been there for three or four years from a communication standpoint, so I feel really good about where we’re at, and we’re only gonna get better as time goes.”