NASCAR CUP SERIES: EERO 400

July 5, 2026

Chase Briscoe

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: We have now been joined by our race winner here at Chicagoland Speedway, Chase Briscoe. First of all, Chase, congratulations on that win. I wanted to ask you about your move there when you got out of the car where you did the fishing pole kind of move. Just talk a little bit about your celebration. You mentioned how excited you were to win in that paint scheme, but I'm sure Johnny Morris loved that as well. Talk a little bit about that.

CHASE BRICOE: Yeah, I thought about the reeling it in thing last year. I never have got to obviously use it until today.

Yeah, I feel like that's the most American I'll ever feel in my life, winning in the red, white, and blue, Bass Pro Shop scheme, 4th of July weekend. 250 years of America. The only thing I think that would have made it more American was to win on July 4th instead of July 5th.

What a cool weekend to hear Johnny when he called me to hear how fired up he is and just the whole Bass Pro Shop's group. It's a huge thing. They obviously are so big on just being proud of being American and to win on this weekend in that paint scheme, it means a lot for all of us for sure.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. That battle or holding off Christopher those last few laps, how did you try to play that, because he pretty much got right to your bumper, and I think he even got to your left at some point. How did you hold him off?

CHASE BRISCOE: Yeah, it was super close. You know, he about won the race in three and four with two or three to go. We kind of caught a lap car. We were going to have to run the top, because lap car was going to the bottom. I kind of ran a little too high, and he almost -- I mean, he was so close to getting in my left rear. If he gets in my left rear, he instantly wins the race. But was able to just barely squirt in front of him.

The lap car is kind of what made -- he was going to catch me I think either way, but the lap cars really just made it happen way faster. Then honestly at the end the last two laps, the lap cars are what saved me. It made it where, you know, he didn't have a clean lane. There was always another lap car running the bottom or running the middle. I could kind of block him in a sense.

I knew as long as -- I had to make sure I drove it in deep enough he couldn't get to my left rear, and then just make sure I had a somewhat decent exit. But I was sideways and drifting on exit a lot of the time. It was a super intense battle.

Out of all the people that were going to catch me, I was glad it was him just because I knew he was going to race me super clean, obviously. Yeah, it was a lot of fun, for sure.

Q. We've talked so much about Denny this year and Tyler and their battle and everything, but Chase, are people sleeping on the 19 team?

CHASE BRISCOE: We still have a long way to go. We have not been as consistent as the 11 and the 45. But from a speed standpoint, I feel like we've been there with them. The 11 has probably been a little bit quicker.

So, yeah, I think we still need a little bit. The hard part is we're just going to be playing from behind the whole playoffs -- or the whole chase just because of our points situation.

I talked about last week how if I can win two or three races here in the next eight before the regular season ends, then there's a real path of getting to maybe top 5 in points.

Yeah, next week is going to be a huge thing, because points can really swing a lot just with it being a superspeedway. Then you have Daytona too. You just kind of have to have a little bit of luck in those two races to really get yourself there.

But with how much extra incentive there is to win races now in the points structure, even in the chase, if you can just win two or three races, you can close that gap pretty quickly. It just makes it where you don't really have any mulligans to start. That's where Tyler and Denny are going to have an advantage.

Q. Over the radio he tells you to dig deeper, you got this, and kind of implores you to find something deep inside of you. Are you hearing that? Is it white noise? What is the thought process? Some drivers don't want to be told that.

CHASE BRISCOE: I was kind of getting a little frustrated just because, obviously, I was doing everything I could and going as fast as I could. They kept telling me to do different stuff in the car trying to carry partial throttle into three and all these things. And I'm like, I'm driving the car. Like, I know what it's capable of doing and not doing. What I was doing was the fastest it was going to go around there.

I totally get what they're doing, right, but yeah, it was a little bit of white noise just because I was so focused on just trying to -- I knew that I was slower than Bell, so I was just trying to minimize my time loss every single lap.

I felt like if I was going to try something different or try what they wanted me to do, yeah, there's a chance I maybe go a touch faster, but the odds were I was probably going to be a little bit slower. I felt like I couldn't give up any of my gap.

Q. (Off microphone).

CHASE BRISCOE: No, I don't care.

Q. Now that you've won, I guess, can you tell us about the pressure to win in a Toyota these days? Every Toyota seems so fast, and I'm sure you see the other Toyotas winning and it's, like, man, I assume that's got to be weighing on you to some degree.

CHASE BRISCOE: Yeah, I would say that this year has been unlike anything I've ever experienced in my career. In the past, where I was at Haas -- I went two and a half, three years without winning, so you kind of get accustomed to not winning.

Last year to be able to win three races, that just becomes the expectation that you should go and win races and compete for wins. It's definitely burned me up not winning more than ever before, especially just knowing that our cars are really, really fast. There's been a couple that have kind of slipped away I feel like this year.

Then when your teammates are winning, it makes it worse as a competitor, because you know they have every equal opportunity that you have, and they're performing better.

So, yeah, there's definitely a lot of pressure to go and run good.

It goes in ups and flows. A year from now the Toyotas could be way off, and the Chevys and Fords could be unbelievable. When you are good, you have to take advantage of it. Especially at the types of racetracks where the Toyotas are typically the best are the mile and a halves. When you come to a mile and a half, you cannot have a bad day. You need to take advantage of it, because it's want very often you have a race-winning car. When you have them, you have to try to win, especially in this format.

Q. (Off microphone)?

CHASE BRISCOE: How did I poll the crowd?

Q. (Off microphone).

CHASE BRISCOE: More than 82% of them did.

Q. Jeff kind of took a direction that I wanted to go, but I'll kind of, I don't know, bounce another direction of that off of you. When things are not going well like they were in the spring, and I know some of it's misfortune, but I'm sure you and James look in the mirror and say, okay, well, maybe this was not our fault, but what is? What were those conversations like when you guys have really honest debriefs and say what can we be doing better that you are starting to do better now?

CHASE BRISCOE: I think, for one, executing. Just managing the race better. I feel like that's something that really took me a long time to do. Once I got to JGR, just understand the risk versus reward of certain scenarios and manage the race.

In the past I would just run every lap 100% and burn my stuff up, where now because my cars are better and I've listened to just Denny a lot about how he manages his pace based off what his car is doing and understanding putting heat in the tires.

I feel like I've done a way better job of that the last couple of weeks. It's something that James and I have tried to work a ton on is just understanding how to manage the race, how to manage your tires to really understand how you can be the most efficient over the course of a run.

I would say that's the thing that we've probably worked the most on is just trying to, honestly, change my driving style some and just try to make the tires have less heat all the time, because of how I drive with my sprint car background. I really try to turn it with the gas a lot of the time. It honestly hurts you in the long run because of that.

I would say that's the biggest thing that we as a group have really focused on.

Then I would say that the focus for us going forward, now that we've kind of not perfected that, but gotten better at it, is just trying to understand how do we make our balance better for when we're in the lead? That's something I think we struggled with a little bit last year. We would qualify on the pole a lot, and we'd be fine when we're second through fifth on the racetrack, but when we would get the lead, we would typically go pretty free. And trying to understand what that balance is of maybe you can give up a little bit for traffic to be better when you're in the lead.

Q. Around Talladega last fall, you and James both kind of suggested that the season that you guys had was important to both of you because you both kind of felt like you were racing for your lives or validating the spot that y'all found yourselves in at JGR. How is the pressure this year of getting well into a season, halfway through a season, and not following up that success similar to the pressure that you guys put on yourselves last year?

CHASE BRISCOE: It's different. You know, because last year I feel like we were both trying to just prove that we deserved to be in the position that we were in. Then to be able to go last year and be as competitive kind of week in and week out and have a chance to win the championship, you know, you start this season like internally having that expectation, but also the whole world around you has that expectation now.

When we talked about over the offseason where should we be week 5, week 10 of the season, it was honestly leading the points or being in the top 3. When that doesn't happen, I think it's easy to not point fingers at each other, but there is a friction, right, because you're not getting the results that you were so used to getting.

That's where I think James and I have done a pretty good job of just still looking at the big picture and being, like, okay, it's not like we're slow. We're still really fast. We just haven't had the results on the execution side. Some of it has been just circumstance, but outside of really two or three weekends on the season, we've had a car that's capable of running in the top 3, and we just haven't done it as a race team.

Yeah, I think for us it's been the big thing is just understanding that we're both obviously putting everything we've got into it and just once we start executing, the speed is there.

Q. You mentioned earlier being able to say that you trust Christopher when you're there in those closing laps. What does that say about him in general as a teammate and as an individual that he, too, racing for his first win of the season that you could trust that he's not going to just go in there and chip you and cost you a win?

CHASE BRISCOE: Even if we're not teammates, Christopher is the most fair guy in the field. He's going to race you how you race him. And that's how he's been his whole career. In dirt racing, sprint cars, midgets, he's just what a race car driver truthfully should be. He's going to race you extremely hard, but he's not going to do anything that's -- there's a certain respect level I feel like amongst a lot of us. Christopher is always very good about that.

For me, obviously, I've known Christopher over half my life, so there's always just been this mutual respect between the two. We're buddies, and we just -- I don't know, we race each other really, really well.

Even outside of being teammates, if I drove for a different organization, I don't think Christopher would have raced me any different at the end. That's just who Christopher is. That's who he is as a person and as a race car driver, I just have the utmost respect for Christopher because that's how I was raised to race, and he obviously follows that.

Q. You mentioned the goal of getting to the top 5 in points. I told James 46 to 5th. Do you think you can cut that down over the next couple of races?

CHASE BRISCOE: That's exciting. I did not know it was only 46 points. It was 108 I think going into tonight. Yeah, for us to cut that big of a deficit in, like I said earlier, you have to have Atlanta go your way, you have to have Daytona go your way.

But certainly, you know, I think it's encouraging for us to only be that far back. It puts it in perspective that it's not impossible, for sure.

Q. How does it feel to eliminate the defending champion of the bracket challenge of Ty Gibbs?

CHASE BRISCOE: I feel like the first two matchups I've had have been extremely tough. Allmendinger on the road course; and then Ty today, I knew I would have to be in the top 3 to have a chance.

I guess I'm glad I'm moving on. I feel bad for Ty that he's not able to back it up, but yeah, it was a good battle, for sure, all night long.

Q. Did you get your chocolate yet?

CHASE BRISCOE: Yeah, I did. James brought it to me as I was standing on the front stretch. It was pretty good.

Q. What's the story behind that? Is he closely watching your diet, or does he feel like you eat too much chocolate?

CHASE BRISCOE: He closely watches it. I don't do a great job still. We can cut that out. Yeah, we went to the U.K. this offseason as a bonding thing. They have these Dairy Milk Buttons, and they were unbelievable. I bought them here in the States through Amazon, and they're not even close to the same.

He went to the U.K. on the off week a couple of months ago, and he bought a couple. So he's been -- he hasn't mentioned it to me until today. He said, Hey, I got those milk buttons. If you win, you can have them.

He brought them to me on the front straightaway. It was pretty good.

Q. Was this all for his birthday, or is this good enough?

CHASE BRISCOE: This is it. For James, this is as good as it's going to get.

Q. Yesterday during the scrums you said that you were upset and even kind of mad that you hadn't won this year, considering everything that you've been through. Were you thinking about that at all in the last -- in the closing laps? Did it fuel you to want to beat Christopher?

CHASE BRISCOE: I mean, I would be lying if when I saw him coming, I'm, like, of course, I'm going to get beat at the end on tires and I'll be the last guy to not win at JGR. I was already -- I'm driving as hard as I can. It didn't matter if it was Christopher or whoever it was. I was going to drive the same.

Yeah, you definitely -- when you see a guy coming on tires, you definitely are -- I don't know, at least for me, I recognize it, right? I see the big picture of what's about to happen. I just knew I had to be perfect and focus on the right things and what I was doing with my car.

Yeah, I don't know if it really changed a whole lot, but I was definitely aware of what was potentially about to happen.

Q. Then you've scored your first ARCA Menards Series victory at a mile and a half track at Chicago in 2016. Tonight you get your first mile and a half victory in a Cup Series at a mile and a half track. Any significance around that regarding Chicagoland Speedway?

CHASE BRISCOE: No, for sure. It's been something in the Xfinity series itself able to win a lot on the mile and a halves. I've not been able to do that in the Cup Series. I've been able to run second a lot of times, but never finally able to seal the deal.

It's really cool to win at a mile and a half in the Cup Series. I feel like that's the staple of what the Cup Series is. My teammates have obviously been unbelievable in the mile and a half.

To do it here at Chicagoland is really special. It is in the Midwest. It's close to home. Yeah, this has been a place that I've always loved coming to back when we used to. I missed it. It's always been one of my top-5 tracks.

It's nice that, I guess, some of the things that I used to do around here still work. It's very different, but it's the same approach you had to have back then still is the same today.

Q. You touched on how special it is to win on July 4th. Is it more special as a Tony Stewart fan given how often he won the Daytona night race back in the day?

CHASE BRISCOE: I didn't think about that. Tony used to wear them out on 4th of July weekend. I think for me the significance. First off, what Bass Pro Shop has done for the sport, but just how into America they are, right? That is their brand. That's their identity. To win on this weekend, like, Johnny Morris takes a ton of pride. And a Bass Pro Shop's car being on the racetrack, but specifically on this weekend.

If you went to any Bass Pro Shops around the country, there's hundreds if not thousands of American flags out in the parking lot and things like that. For him, you know, just the amount of stuff that he's put into this sport to be able to just reward him in some way and I know how special it is to him, just being an American on this weekend, let alone being a winning sponsor on this weekend and in NASCAR nonetheless is a huge deal for Johnny and the entire brand.

Q. Chase, you kind of touched upon this already and the Coach was asked this as well. You talked about coming to Chicago for the 4th of July weekend. It's happened four years in a row now with the street race and this back at Chicagoland Speedway. You talked about the past here in Chicago and the Midwest. What could your future, especially after a win today, kind of mean for you and your team?

CHASE BRISCOE: Yeah, I mean, I think it's huge from just -- this is the part of the season where you want to be winning and running up front. For us to be able to do that now in back-on-back weeks and have a chance to win two races in a row is a huge deal from a team standpoint. From a confidence standpoint it's a huge deal.

It's cool to win on this weekend. Of all weekends to win, this is one of those weekends you want to win as a race car driver, especially with it being the 250th birthday of America. I think for me Chicago is kind of like a second home track in the sense it's four and a half hours from home. I have a lot of people here that don't get to see me race at a lot of other places.

Yeah, just being able to win here and being relatively close to home is always nice.

Q. Chase, are wins where someone is right there and you make a mistake and he's going to pass, are those more rewarding for you as a driver, or is it just a win is a win?

CHASE BRISCOE: No, I think it's definitely more rewarding when the pressure is on. I mean, look, it's great to dominate them, but certainly to know that you can be under that kind of pressure and perform, at least for me as a competitor, that means a lot.

I think internally for your team it just builds confidence in you as the driver whenever you can be in these high-pressure situations and perform. Yeah, you don't want to be the guy that's known for choking at the end of high-pressure situations. Yeah, definitely it means a lot.

I would have much rather led every lap and dominated, but to be able to win and perform at a high level at the end of these races is an important thing to be able to do in the Cup Series because there's a lot of times where, late-race restarts or whatever, and you have to perform in those situations.

Q. You said you had to change your driving style. What is the process in doing that? You're just in the simulator a lot longer and practicing what you have to do better? Are you doing that in practice?

CHASE BRISCOE: More so the simulator. At least trying to make it second nature in a sense. It's still not second nature by any means, but just I think when you can go to the simulator and run hundreds of laps and you can kind of teach your foot what to do and your hands what to do, it definitely makes it more second nature.

Look, when you are in the race car, what comes natural is still what's going to happen, but I do think for me tonight, there was times where I'm doing what comes natural, but then I'm, like, okay, I need to remember doing X, Y, and Z. You're just aware of it.

Truthfully, I don't do it every single lap, but there are moments where I'm doing it. I think that's for me where it's been neat to be able to at least see kind of the fruition of all the work I put in, especially on the road course side. The oval side is another thing.

Yeah, it is nice whenever you can put in the work and see the results because of that.

Q. You mentioned that winning is the expectation, but we've seen some really good drivers go winless in seasons. You've now had three consecutive seasons with a win. What does it mean to have that consistency in a sport that's so tough to win in?

CHASE BRISCOE: Yeah, it's pretty cool. I didn't even realize that. I never thought I would win a single race, let alone win three seasons in a row. As a race car driver, at least at the Cup level, you like to just stay where you're at. To have a job, you need to be able to win consistently. To be able to do that now three years in a row is pretty cool.

I feel like all the guys, at least that I have always looked up to, Kyle Busch is a great example, I like to be able to win that many seasons in a row. It just says that you're at the top of your game for a long time.

Hopefully I can continue to win throughout my career, but to be able to win three years in a row is pretty dang cool. Like I was saying earlier, when you go to like my days at Stewart-Haas, you go two or three years where you don't win, and it's easy to get caught up in that. I think winning is definitely contagious.

To be able to win three years in a row now is a pretty good thing to say.

Q. This morning you and I were chatting right before the Trackside Chapel this morning, and you spoke to the fans about the importance of faith, family, and all that in your overall career. How much of that really resonate on a night like this where you get that first win of the year, and you get to go celebrate it with your family after all this?

CHASE BRISCOE: Yeah, it's super nice. Even if I would have ran second or dead last, I this I just having that perspective of it's still not really that important. Like, that probably sounds terrible to say to a lot of people, but yeah, I mean, do I want to win? Absolutely. But if I wouldn't have won tonight, I'm going to go home and my kids are still going to be just as excited to see me.

Yeah, I think just being able to keep that in perspective, that's something that we kind of talked about at the chapel service this morning is just how your identity is not in your results. Yeah, as a competitor, I want to win, absolutely, but it's not my identity either.

Yeah, it's great to win, but it's not really about that, so yeah.