Chase Briscoe felt how driving for one of the top teams in NASCAR can be daunting last year when he first started competing with Denny Hamlin and Christopher Bell. As he revisits Pocono this year, the same track that gave him his first victory with Joe Gibbs Racing, Briscoe can’t help but look back on the mental challenge that he was facing in 2025 against his teammates.

Talking to SiriusXM about his first race win for Joe Gibbs Racing at Pocono, Briscoe revealed that he was under a lot of pressure due to the results that his teammates had posted by the time they reached that stage in the Regular Season Championship. So when the victory eventually came, he couldn’t help but feel lighter than ever.

“I just felt like the weight of the world was off my shoulders finally. Whenever you come into a new team, a new organization, there’s pressure to perform, right?… And not that our season hadn’t gone well, but you know, we hadn’t won yet, and at that point Denny and Christopher both won,” he admitted during the interview.

“I think I was in the playoffs, but I was kind of right around the bubble the whole time. Just being able to go and finally win, it was one of the things that felt like the weight of the world was off my shoulders.”

Briscoe joined the JGR camp with a strong resume and loads of expectations from his driving. Since Stewart-Haas Racing, his former team, was closing down, he had to look for better options, inevitably. Fortunately for him, Joe Gibbs took an interest in him, and by the time they actually announced his contract, the grid already knew where he was headed for 2026.

His teammates were equally excited to have him. Bell in particular said: “Since I had the mistake of starting this on Friday, I guess I’ll get to finish it out… It is my honor to finally announce the full name of our driver next year, Chase Briscoe, in the No. 19 car.”

When Briscoe’s signing was announced, Hamling was #2 in the rankings with 3 wins, 8 top-10 finishes, and 500 laps led. Bell had 2 wins, 6 top-ten finishes, and 239 laps led, which placed him at #11 at the time.

Briscoe was filling in the shoes of an equally great driver, taking over the no. 19 car of Martin Truex Jr.Before retiring, Truex Jr. spent the previous season racing consistently near the front row, even winning the 2023 Regular Season championship. So naturally, when Briscoe was about to join JGR, he wanted to go for the championship title right from the get-go.

Big expectations and an even bigger performance increase

“I’ve raced against Joe Gibbs Racing, so I knew that, if everything went well, there was a very good likelihood that you’d be racing for a championship,” he said. “Year one—I’m not going to say it’s surprising, but I would also say it exceeded expectations for year one, for sure.

“It would mean a lot to do it in year one, just with everything, with Coach obviously taking a chance on me. Just to start our tenure off together, winning a championship would be pretty cool, but it would certainly make the expectations going forward way harder.”

Briscoe didn’t falter on his promise either. Not only did he complete the championship on a high note with three victories to his name, but Briscoe also finished the season right behind teammate Denny Hamlin. Finishing at P3 in the driver’s championship is sure to add fuel to his confidence about making the title fight.

It is safe to say that he was able to escape the shadow of his teammates in his debut season with Joe Gibbs Racing without any further complications. As he moves to Pocono this year, he is once again in a similar situation. With 370 points to his name, he is sitting in P13 in the driver’s standings, right at the precipice of the cutoff line. He will easily make the Chase this year, but what happens beyond that is going to depend a lot more on the post-win consistency he displayed last year after Pocono.

With five top 5s to his name so far this season, Chase Briscoe has come close to the elusive victory multiple times without actually being able to claim the prize. But it’s high time that he turns his near misses into a grand finale in the victory lane.