Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR on FOX - Chase Briscoe Interview Following His Win At Talladega | VICTORY LAP

Episode Date: October 20, 2025

Fresh off his Talladega victory, Chase Briscoe joins Kevin Harvick for this week’s Victory Lap interview. Briscoe talks about what it meant to earn his first career Superspeedway win and how he pulled it off in one of NASCAR’s most unpredictable races. He also shares a special moment from Victory Lane — celebrating with Johnny Morris, founder and CEO of Bass Pro Shops, one of his biggest supporters and longtime sponsors. Briscoe explains why the win was a full-circle moment for him and his team. With a spot already locked in the Championship 4, Briscoe and Harvick dive into how the team will approach Martinsville, what changes now that the pressure is off, and why confidence inside the No. 14 team has never been higher. LINK TO SUBMIT PICKS FOR MARTINSVILLE: https://forms.gle/gP5eBuaQMF3hHqCg8 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

He told me it had not been in victory land of Talladega since with Dale Earnhardt. When you came to JGR, you're expected to win. If you're not winning, you're not going to have a job. When I won Pocono, the weight of the world literally felt like it lifted off my shoulders. Well, Chase, that was an intense battle all the way to the end, had the speeding penalty there early, overcame that, got in position there. And obviously, you've been in enough Taledega races. You know that those can turn upside down at any moment.

So that had to feel great to knock that super speedway win off the checklist. Yeah, for sure. It's something that I've been wanting to do for a very long time. I mean, literally in every division, whether it was, you know, Arka, trucks, Xfinity, Cup, whatever it was, I never won a super speedway race. So, yeah, just to finally win a super speedway race was something that was super special. And I put a lot of work into it. It's hard because you don't always get the, you know, work to actually do the results of it. But to finally just win one of those races and the timing that came in was huge.

Yeah. The timing is obviously something that you don't circle when you go to Talladega. It's nice when it happens and you're able to capitalize on that. But for you, the timing of it to get to the championship, to have Johnny Morris there, all those things coming together had to be had to be something that you probably didn't have circle. I would assume that Vegas and Martinsville were probably the races that you wanted to control, but had to feel good to have Johnny Morris and the whole Bass Pro Shop crowd in Victory Lane there with you.

Yeah, it was certainly perfect timing. I mean, just, you know, the timing of the playoffs and then just having Johnny there, you know, we've been able to win a couple of races this year, but Johnny's not been in any of them. And to have him there and just see how excited he was, he was telling us that it's one of the greatest days in his company's history. And I didn't even realize he told me he had not been in Victory Atlanta, Talladega since with Dale Earnhardt. So that was really, really cool just to see how excited and jacked up he was. And then, you know, it was our third one of the years. So I got to do some three for Dale's with Johnny and Victory Atlanta, Talladega.

Yeah, it was a perfect day. And, yeah, I mean, like you said, going into this round of eight, you know, I looked at Vegas and I looked at Mark. And even yesterday, the whole goal was just to try to come out of there above the cut line and then go control what I felt like I could control at Martinsville. But yeah, to win there is even better. When you look at when you look at the situation now, you've won at Talladega. Obviously, you want to go to Martinsville and do all you can do. But how does the attention during the week shift and change now? Have you guys had that conversation yet? Very, very briefly, just last night. You know, we're still going to sim. Martinsville, you know, this week just to try to, you know, see what we can do and learn, obviously, even for next year. But, yeah, we're certainly, you know, shifts some of our focus to Phoenix this week. You know, our Sim time at Martinsville will be very, very limited compared to

what we will do at Phoenix. And yeah, just absolutely maximizing everything we can for Phoenix. I mean, we're probably running an additional, I don't know, 10, 15 hours probably. I mean, who knows. But, yeah, we're definitely putting in a lot of extra effort just trying to go to Phoenix and be the best prepared we can be and yeah, hopefully it'll be enough. Talk to me about your mindset. You start the year and you come into a new team, new organization, new people, new everything. You learn the processes of everything that's going on. You go and you get yourself into victory lane for the third time now.

You have to deal with the pressure of the playoffs and now you're going to take the next step in dealing with the pressure of the playoff race at the cup level. What has that process been like for you mentally to adapt to not trying to survive as a driver to knowing that you're a winner and you're in the Cup series to hopefully stay for a long time and know that you go to the racetrack every week now with an opportunity to win? That is a massive transition from where you started the year to where you are and where you are as a driver. It definitely is. You know, I would say that, you know, the playoffs have not been stressful pressure-packed at all.

The beginning of the season was the most pressure I feel like I've ever been under in my life. You know, just all the way up truthfully till Pocono when we won. I just, the weight of the world literally felt like it lifted off my shoulders when I finally won at Pocono. Just because when you came to JGR, like, you're expected to win. You have to win. You know, if you're not winning, you're not going to have a job, you know, at any other race team. And yeah, when I won Pocono, I felt like literally the weight of the world was lifted off my shoulders. And since that day, you know, I've kind of just had this mindset, you know, shift as we started running better.

You know, I went from, you know, occasionally running in the top five at the beginning of the year to then a little more consistently. And then we were running, you know, top two and three. It seemed like every single weekend. And I became just one of the guys that's occasionally up front to kind of consistently up front. And yeah, I mean, now I go to the race. track every single weekend with the intention that I can go there and win the race. And it's, it's very similar to, I would say, 2020 and Xfinity, where I feel like if I just go to the racetrack and do my job and execute, I'm going to have a shot to win the race. And that's a really

fun feeling to have, you know, when you can go to the racetrack every single weekend, no matter road course, short track, intermediate, super speedway, and know that you have a shot to win the race at the cup level. And that's something that, you know, I didn't necessarily feel the last four or five years of my career. So just trying to, you know, enjoy the moment because it could all change, you know, at any point, you know, JGR could go on a down swing. You know, obviously, we hope that doesn't happen, but we see it time and time again. So just trying to take advantage of it, you know, certainly, you know, I went from just trying to be one of those guys. Now I feel like I'm one of those guys and just that confidence and everything that comes along with that

has been a huge shift, you know, basically for sure. When you look at the standings right now, there's a, you know, if it went today, you'd have three JGR cars in the championship four. Have you ever thought about how you guys are going to manage that internally? That's that's quite the feat for the company. But, you know, it's it's winner take all in that situation. That would be fun to watch and probably as stressful as you could, as much stress as you could ever put on Joe Gibbs in one situation,

having three cars racing for the championship. Have you thought about that at all? I mean, yeah, I've thought about it a little bit. I mean, it's certainly possible. You know, honestly, I don't think it'll feel, you know, from my standpoint, I don't think it'll feel any different than what it does every other week because that's the one thing I've kind of learned at JGR is like every single weekend, a lot of the time if I'm going to win the race, I'm racing my teammates for the win.

So, I mean, yeah, there's more at stake, I guess, with the championship. But, you know, I still have to go beat the same guys. and, you know, we do get a lot of, I guess, practice racing each other for wins and big, big situations. So, yeah, I don't think it'll really change a whole lot, you know, at least from my side. I don't think it will. You know, it'll be a little unique, I guess, just within the team side of things, you know, the crew chiefs and stuff. You know, obviously, we all can see what each other are doing and setup-wise with practice and everything. I think that part would be probably a little unique.

But, yeah, hopefully we can all three get there. it would definitely be a huge feat for the company. And yeah, hopefully if, you know, if all three of us get there, then at least hopefully one of us is the guy that walks away with it all. When you go to Phoenix, for me, when I went to Phoenix in those championship four scenarios, it was like just a totally different process because you've got people that want to go to the race. You've got to be there days early. Have you been in a situation before where you're racing for a championship or a moment where you have,

have to just totally abort all the planning that you've done in the past for a particular race, knowing that you're going to, because it's not the same. I know people will try to tell you the same. I've been in a situation. It's not the same because you just, there's way more to manage. Have you been in a situation like that where you've had to kind of get out of your normal routine to do something like you'll have to do at Phoenix? Not really. Even in X-Finity, you know, it was 2020, so it was COVID year, so it was different. You know, people weren't even really allowed in the garage is still. So, you know, I didn't have a lot of people there even when I race for that. But the only thing I feel like I could even somewhat compare it to is just, you know,

Indianapolis race weekend just because I go up early, you know, I spend time with all my family and friends, you know, it's going to be still way different than that. You know, and even just how the week will go, you know, I got to leave Wednesday versus leaving on a Friday or Saturday. and, you know, just even the flight going out there with, you know, three little ones is going to be stressful in itself. So, yeah, I mean, it'll definitely be different from that standpoint, you know, just trying to manage all of that. Yeah, it'll be different. You know, truthfully, I'm glad that it's going to be chaos, you know, and have all those people there. You know, that means you're obviously an incredible opportunity, right?

And they wouldn't want to go and support me if I didn't have that opportunity. So I'm thankful for that. But yeah, it'll be different. But truthfully, I think I would rather have it that way. You know, if I was just by myself or, you know, sitting there all day or all weekend, just me and the team, like I feel like I would think about it too much. Where because all my friends and family are going, it will kind of help distract me to a certain extent. And, you know, everybody's kind of different in that sense. But for me, I feel like that will probably be better.

All right. last question. Who's more, who's more intense on you? Gabe Hart, Chris Gabehart, or James Small? That's easy. That's James all day long. Okay. I mean, Gabe Hart can be intense, but there's not a more intense man than James

Small. I mean, I'm, I said it the other night in a press conference. I'm legit scared of James. Yeah. He just terrifies me. And I think that's what's made, you know, our pairing so unique and so good. It's just we are so

different and it's two just polar opposites you know i'm very very laid back kind of calm chill about everything and james is very high intensity about everything and we just kind of mellow each other out like i need somebody that kind of pokes me along and you know keeps me um you know going and you know in those chaotic moments i can kind of be that voice of reason and that calming for the team so yeah i it's been a lot of fun getting to work with james you know i you know obviously i see what all the fans say and stuff in the past when I was racing against them. And he gets so much flack that is so undeserved. That guy is the hardest working guy in the garage.

I can guarantee it. And I'm just super thankful and appreciated that I'm the one lucky driver that gets to work with him. Well, I'm super happy for you, man. You have put the time, the effort and everything into putting yourself in a position to race for a Cup Series championship. And I wish you nothing but the best of luck. And we'll all be watching. Yeah, buddy. I appreciate it.