The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Chase Briscoe has spent his entire NASCAR career fighting through adversity and worrying about his future; between climbing up the ranks of NASCAR’s National Series with little to no financial backing or being in a lame duck position when Stewart-Haas Racing decided it would be closing its doors at the end of last season.

Now, Briscoe has secured his spot (at least for the short-term future) with Joe Gibbs Racing, after being selected as the successor to NASCAR Cup Series champion Martin Truex, Jr. in the No. 19 Bass Pro Shops-sponsored Toyota Camry XSE. While adversity is very much still present on the racetrack for the 30-year-old driver, it isn’t defining his life and future.

It did, however, have a defining role in his quest to secure his first NASCAR Cup Series title this weekend during NASCAR’s annual Championship Weekend at Phoenix Raceway. The best description of the No. 19’s weekend? Well, crew chief James Small called it “a [expletive]ing [expletive]show.”

(I’ll let you fill in those blanks as you please).

The adversity started early, and it came often, and most of the time, it had to do with tires.

On Friday, Briscoe blew a left-rear tire in the 50-minute practice session for NASCAR Cup Series teams, and all throughout the session continued to have issues, to the point where the No. 19 was only able to get a seven-lap run in, while his title contending adversaries, each got to feel what their cars were like on the long run.

Saturday was, no question, better for the Joe Gibbs Racing team, posting a 12th-place qualifying effort. The only problem with that? The other three Championship 4 contenders swept the top three positions in qualifying. To hoist the Bill France Cup on Sunday, things would need to get better.

RACE RESULTS: 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Phoenix

Now, was Sunday better for Briscoe? That’s debatable. The Mitchell, Indiana-native still had multiple issues with the tires (this time with the right-rear, though), but then again, so did every one of the other three Championship 4 contenders.

The first problem happened at the one-third mark of the event, when running well inside the top-10, the right-rear tire went down on the No. 19… but, luckily, an incident ahead of Briscoe allowed the team to salvage a lead-lap position, but they’d have to restart outside the top-30.

Now, I don’t know what James Small said during his pep talk to Briscoe and the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing pit crew, because it worked, and the five-time NASCAR Cup Series race-winner found himself not just back into the top-10, but fighting with William Byron for the top spot in the NASCAR Cup Series championship battle.

But, then the right-rear tire failed again, and Briscoe had to make a green-flag pit stop and lost a lap. That, effectively, ended the first-year Joe Gibbs Racing pilot’s chances of winning the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Championship.

“Certainly eventful. We never gave up. That’s been the story of my whole career: never giving up. You never know what can change at any point. Felt like we were good enough. We came from the front to the back two or three different times,” said Briscoe post-race. “Wish we could have been on an even playing field at some point. Was about to pass William [Byron], blew another tire. Just part of it. Obviously thankful for the opportunity. So excited to be at Joe Gibbs Racing, be able to compete for wins and compete for championships. Hate that one of us didn’t get it. I thought we were both certainly capable. This wasn’t our day.”

In his first year at Joe Gibbs Racing, did anybody truthfully expect Briscoe to fight for a NASCAR Cup Series Championship? Absolutely not. So, regardless of the outcome of Sunday’s 319-lapper at Phoenix, this gives the entire No. 19 team something incredible to build on for an even better run – under a new format – in 2026.

For the overall confidence of a driver getting into top-tier equipment for the first-time in his NASCAR Cup Series career, this season was fantastic for Briscoe: “It was big. Just in the sense of you always think you can do it, but you never really know if you can. This years to prove to myself and certainly a lot of other people, too, that I feel like I belong here, right? So yeah, looking forward to obviously building on that. Really this year I felt like we gave the field half a season head start because we were learning so much throughout the process. We’ll start on an even playing field next year, see if we can better.”

… and NASCAR Cup Series drivers, take this as a warning, because Briscoe and Small don’t even believe they’ve reached their full potential.

“Certainly, we think we can get back here. James and I were talking; we don’t even feel like we’re at our full potential yet. I definitely feel confident we can get back.”

Recommended Articles: