Chase Briscoe is officially entering a new era.

Goodbye, Stewart-Haas Racing. Hello, Joe Gibbs Racing.

In a Nov. 22 media availability, hours before the 2024 NASCAR Awards banquet, Briscoe said he hasn’t had many ties to SHR at all since the NASCAR Cup Series’ season finale Nov. 10 at Phoenix Raceway — so few, in fact, that he cleaned out his locker on the No. 14 SHR hauler after the Phoenix finale and transferred his belongings to the No. 19 JGR hauler just so he could get his items back.

“Honestly, I already kind of turned the chapters because we were locked out of the building and everything. We couldn’t even go back,” Briscoe said. “So I mean, truthfully, I’ve already cleaned my closet out. I kept some stuff, but, yeah, I mean, there’s really no SHR in existence anymore, right? It’s already the Haas Factory Team on the building and the employees and everything else.”

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The postseason awards celebration marked Briscoe’s final official appearance as driver of the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford after four Cup seasons. Now, he pivots to the No. 19 Toyota to replace the retiring past Cup champion Martin Truex Jr., joining JGR and teammates Denny Hamlin, Ty Gibbs and Christopher Bell in what he described as the most pressure-packed ride of his career.

“I love the pressure side, but I do think this is probably the most pressure I’ve ever been (under) in my life, as far as professionally,” Briscoe said. “It’s weird because there’s been other times where my career was literally gonna be over, right? But I feel like this is one of those opportunities where if you don’t perform, like, there’s no excuses. Like, you have to perform at JGR. So from that standpoint, it is different because everywhere else, there’s really not been that expectation.

“SHR, where we were as a company was totally different. We weren’t expected, really, to go win. And if you win, then awesome, right? That’s great. But you weren’t expected to go win week in, week out, where at JGR, you are expected to be up front every single weekend. So from that standpoint, it is going to be totally different than anything I’ve really had in my career. So yeah, I’ll just have to figure it out.”

That challenge is one Briscoe welcomes as he enters a new chapter both as a racer and a father. He and wife Marissa welcomed twins Cooper and Collins on Oct. 8, now parents of three in addition to 3-year-old Brooks. And while adapting to life as a father of three has been its own journey, focus on the racing side of life has been a smoother endeavor.

Briscoe and crew chief James Small worked on building rapport with one another as the season was winding to a close, trying to get a head start on what their future could look like.

“Even the last, I would say, two or three weeks of the season,” Briscoe said, “(Small) made it a point always on Monday just to call me and kind of talk through my weekend and see what I fought and what struggles, just see if it lined up with anything they had. So yeah, I feel like we get along really well. Obviously, we haven’t been in that competition (situation) yet. We’ve just been away from the race track. But so far, everything’s been really good.”

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Small has spent the past five seasons as Truex’s crew chief, working with him in some capacity since 2018 when both were at Furniture Row Racing. So Briscoe’s arrival marks a new era for Small too, who welcomes an eager, soon-to-be 30-year-old to the fold in place of the outgoing 44-year-old Truex.

“For us, it’s building a new story,” Small said after Phoenix. “You know, Martin was already established. Chase has only won a couple of races. It’s like Martin when he went to Furniture Row. He’s still very young, he’s extremely fast, and I know he’s very hungry to perform and show everybody what he’s capable of. So the whole team is just really, really excited to get going and try and get back here next year in the final four of the (playoffs).”

An added benefit for the No. 19 team is Briscoe’s proximity to the Huntersville, North Carolina, race shop. Truex often spent his weekdays outside the Carolinas, mainly in Florida and New Jersey, which prevented many visits to the shop.

“It’s just going to be really great to actually have somebody, for one, that lives in North Carolina,” Small told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, “and two, comes into the shop multiple times a week so we can actually build the team around him and have him in the process of developing the setup each week and helping us be better as well. We’re all really excited to have him on board and I think it’s gonna be a big gain for the 19 team.”

Briscoe said he doesn’t quite know what his JGR schedule will be yet, but he’s looking forward to being in the shop as much as Small is looking forward to having him.

“Even James was telling me, I don’t think they’ve done sim for like three years, just because Martin’s never been there,” Briscoe said. “So from that standpoint, I know he’s excited just to be able to do sim because it feels like it’s going to make them better.”

A native of Mitchell, Indiana, Briscoe said those relationships with those on his team are imperative as they build communication and understand what each other needs and expects. That process began Nov. 14, Briscoe said, when he went to JGR to work ahead on his seat for the 2025 campaign, spending at least four hours at the shop. The facility was largely empty since the season had just ended, but Briscoe still left with a different impression.

“Being able to see a little bit on the inside, it’s definitely been intense,” he said. “Like it’s been very eye-opening, I would say, just being there a couple days, just how different it is. But, at the same time, all I’ve known is one place for the last seven years. So I think anything is going to be different. But it’s been really good so far.”

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By the awards banquet, Briscoe already had his key access and began the process of acquiring his new work laptop. The biggest challenge, however, has been navigating the shop itself.

“I had to have James just show me how to get back to the marketing side the other day because I was so lost,” Briscoe said.

But it will be the expectations, paired with the intricate details, that will be most impactful to Briscoe’s adjustment to life competing under the Joe Gibbs Racing banner.

“It’s gonna be interesting just trying to understand the differences of how just intense JGR is, right?” he said. “At SHR, if we ran eighth, that was a good weekend. Where at JGR, the expectation is way different. It’s like, well, if we ran eighth, why did we run eighth? It’s just a totally different vibe and atmosphere. So from that standpoint, there’s going to be a lot, I think, for me to learn at the beginning of the season and just understanding, honestly, even just the things that go into what makes them as successful as they are. Even when I was at the shop last week, I mean, they were literally trying to find ounces they can shave off my helmet. That’s stuff that I never even thought about at SHR, right?

“So yeah, it’s gonna be different. But I’m excited that me and James are finally gonna be able to start working together. That’s been the hard thing the past couple months. Like, we’ve talked about a lot of things, but we haven’t been able to put any of those into action, where when we do the sim stuff, we’re literally going four days in a row, I think nine to five. And those are gonna be four days where we’re gonna really get to learn each other a lot and understand the lingo.

“And my style of driving might be completely opposite of Martin’s. We feel like (after) talking that they’re pretty similar — like the things Martin looks for are a lot of the same things I look for. But how we get there can be totally different. So there’s gonna be a learning curve for both of us. But I think once we get to that sim work for four days, it’s gonna give us a way better understanding of where we’re gonna be at and what we need to work on.”