Getty Chase Briscoe watches Cup Series practice.
Chase Briscoe is in his fourth full-time NASCAR Cup Series season at Stewart-Haas Racing. According to the 29-year-old driver, he’s unsure if it might be his last with the four-car organization.
During his May 13 appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, the driver candidly addressed all the rumors swirling around the company’s future.
“Yeah, I think there’s obviously concern anytime there’s rumors, right?” Briscoe admitted. “That’s the big thing. I think there’s just a lot of uncertainty. Nobody really knows what’s going on.
Amid ongoing chatter about the future of @StewartHaasRcng, @ChaseBriscoe_14 feels like every race is an audition.
🗣️ “There’s obviously concern anytime there’s rumors […] you start to get a little nervous.”
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“I certainly don’t know what’s going on with our place either. You know, I’m confident that if SHR is still around, I feel like I’ve proved myself enough that they would keep me on here. But yeah, definitely I think anytime that there’s this many rumors going around, right, like you start to get a little nervous. And that’s the big thing is just not knowing and not really hearing anything.
“You just try to go out there and audition every week. And I feel like you can be on a five-year deal and you’re still trying to audition every week, but certainly when there’s all the rumors going around, you certainly feel like every week’s an audition and a trial for something different.”
Chase Briscoe Accepted Leadership Role to Start 2024 Season
Chase Briscoe saying “if SHR is still around” are words no one could have imagined just a few months ago — not even the driver himself.
Before the March 24 race at Circuit of the Americas, he was optimistic about the young season and talked about how things had taken a positive turn for the organization.
@ChaseBriscoe_14 gets candid on differences at @StewartHaasRcng racing from 2023 to 2024.
“Yeah, I would just say, honestly, the shop morale is different,” Briscoe acknowledged. “You know, when we had Kevin (Harvick) there, if the Hall of Famer’s not winning and running up front, like you instantly know that just something is not right.
“So, over the offseason, I think it was just finally addressed, that like, hey, we have serious issues that we need to try to handle. You obviously saw that with Tony coming out publicly and saying stuff and then just internally, we’ve changed a lot of our processes and things that we do at the shop and just trying to make things more structured and organized. And, honestly, just work more as a cohesive unit, where in the past it was kind of four separate teams doing their own things.
“We still have a ways to go to kind of get that full buy-in. I feel like right now the teams definitely have worked more together now than any time that I’ve been at Stewart-Haas.”
Chase Briscoe Leading Team in 2024
Despite all the rumors and noise, Briscoe and his SHR teammates have put up solid numbers through 13 races, or the halfway mark of the regular season.
The No. 14 pilot has led the way with five top 10s, a lone top 5 at Darlington (5th), and an average finishing position of 14.5. Noah Gragson has been the surprise of the organization and the Cup Series early in 2024, recording five top 10s of his own, including a third place at Talladega. He has an average finishing position of 16.4.
Solid day from start to finish for us at Darlington, kinda fitting that the day we throwback to the Briscoe Racing 5 we end up finishing 5th.
Rookie Josh Berry, who took over the No. 4 for the retired Kevin Harvick, started slow but has improved throughout the season. He has scored a single top 5, which occurred in the May 12 Darlington race and has finished inside the top 15 in his last three races. He holds an average finishing position of 20.5.
Interestingly, Ryan Preece also has a 20.5 average finishing position through 13 races, including his lone top 10, a ninth at Martinsville.
The four teams appear to be trending in the right direction based on the numbers alone. And based on what Briscoe said, you can be sure the drivers will be putting their best feet forward the remainder of the season knowing that every race is a potential audition for a job in 2025. Whether that job is at SHR or another organization is still anyone’s guess.