Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR on FOX - Chase Briscoe Interview following win at Pocono | VICTORY LAP

Episode Date: June 23, 2025

In this week’s Victory Lap, Kevin Harvick is joined by Chase Briscoe to break down his pressure-packed win at Pocono! Chase describes his strategy at the end of the race, why it was so meaningful to get his first win with Joe Gibbs Racing, and shares his thoughts on his goals for the rest of the Cup season. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's been way different. The car's potential was so much greater than anything I've ever driven before. The expectation is to win every single week. All right, Chase, well, you had a great weekend. I think as you look at your year and qualifying on the pole, and I think a lot of us have seen the capability in the team. Talk about your day. Did you think this was a day that was going to result in Victory Lane,

or did you just have to let the strategy play out? and how did it feel to just finally knock that wall down and get it done? Yeah, I definitely didn't think I was, you know, like sometimes you, you know, like you wake up Sunday morning and you know your car is good enough to win, right? I didn't necessarily have that feeling after Saturday. I knew that I was going to be decent, but I didn't think I had, you know, race winning speed based off what we had in practice. I thought I was going to be a top five car, though, and sometimes that's all it takes.

And for us, you know, the start of the race, you know, we were able to kind of main our track position and then it kind of got flipped and once it got flipped i think i fell back to like 15th and i was just stuck like could not go anywhere and then uh honestly things just kind of went our way with how the cautions fell and we were able to cycle to the lead and once we got the lead our car was really really strong and was obviously able to hold on but yeah it was a nice truthfully just to kind of execute one that's something that we had not been able to do all year long as far as just not have any, like, major hiccups, whether it's a pit road penalty or just a bad pit stop. You know, I tried giving it away yesterday. But fortunately, it ended up all working out in the end.

What's this process been like for you to come into a new team, new people, new situation? And I know you've kind of, you've kind of had these moments in the past where you had to come in and perform. But what's it been like having to learn a new organization, knowing the expectation was to win? It wasn't just to have good results. Joe Gibbs Racing is built to win and has done that in the past. What's this process been like for you as you have to learn new cars, the way that they feel, the way that they drive as you've gone through this first part of the season? Yeah, it's been way different and way harder than I anticipated, especially just getting up to

speed because the car's potential was so much greater than anything I've ever driven before in the next-gen era. and truthfully just the first two, three months the season, I was just underdriving all the time, especially in qualifying. And I finally feel like I'm to the point where I'm at the limit. And I kind of know what my car is capable of and what it can do now. But certainly, you know, coming into an organization where, you know, the expectation is to win every single week. It's been an adjustment. I mean, you obviously were there at Seward Haas at the end.

That wasn't the expectation at the end. We obviously still wanted to go there and win, but I think internally, like, we didn't expect to win every single weekend. So just that expectation has been way different and just living in that environment. And then honestly, even just the whole teammate environment of where your teammates are winning, you know, multiple races, that's something in my tenure at SHR wasn't really happening. You know, before I got there, you guys were winning all kinds of races. But once I got to the cup side, that's kind of where the downfall started. and, you know, my teammates weren't winning a whole lot.

I think you won one or two races the one year and outside of that. Nobody was ever really winning. So that's been an adjustment for me, just, you know, personally, you know, being an environment where your teammates are winning races and the expectation is to win week in and week out. But it's something I'm starting to get more and more normal with. It's just been very different from what I've kind of raced at, you know, environment-wise, my entire career.

How has James been? He's pretty high-strung, pretty intense type of guy. What's that driver-cru-chief learning that relationship been like for you as you've gone through that process? Yeah, it's been a lot of fun, truthfully, to work with James. I feel like we're both at that point of our career where we feel like we have a lot to prove and people kind of doubt us, right? And people question, you know, if we should be the people doing it.

And we both know down deep that we're more than capable. And it's been a lot of fun. to, you know, work with James and see just how dedicated he is. I've never met somebody that works harder than he does. I mean, that's literally all he does is work on making the 19 cargo as fast as possible. And for us to be able to, you know, grow as quickly as we have, I think says a lot. And truthfully, the last three or four weeks, I feel like we've grown so much just from a communication standpoint, you know, even a confidence standpoint, and just a belief in each other. And, you know, honestly, I feel like we're still not near to our potential, but I definitely feel like we're getting closer and closer to kind of what we should be doing weekend and week out.

It's been really enjoyable these last couple weeks just because I feel like we're finally getting to that point where, you know, James and the team are kind of getting to understand kind of what I like in the car and the baseline and just the feel I'm looking for. And that's something that the first two or three months, you know, they were trying to figure me out just as much as I was figuring them out where now, you know, they have enough of a baseline. that they can kind of build subs around me now. And, you know, I just feel a really, really comfortable weekend and week out. What's been the single hardest thing with the car from what you went? You were basically embedded in the Stuart Haas Ford system.

You went through their simulation. You went through their style of steering and brakes and engines and all those things. What's been the single hardest thing for you as a driver to adapt to? Honestly, just the potential of the car. You know, especially in quality, fine. That was my problem. The first two or three months of the season, you know, like Texas is a great

example. Like turn one, I went in deeper than I normally would in an SHR car and I still underdrew up it. And just knowing that the potential is there was something that was hard for me to kind of wrap my head around, truthfully, the first two or three months of the season, just because I've never been able to do the things that I can do in this car before as far as just how hard I can drive it, the things I can get away with and the positions I can put it in. It's honestly, absolutely mind-blowing that the same parts and pieces can drive so vastly different. But that's been the biggest thing for me is just trying to understand, you know, how much harder I can drive this car. But with that, I don't have to take the risk anymore that I used to have to do an SHR, you know, where on restart you got to make these really low percentage

moves that might work out and you gain four or five spots. and that's been hard for me to kind of switch my mentality on restarts is, you know, sometimes I just need to maintain. Like I don't need to try to gain four or five spots. Just maintain where you're at and you're going to get it over the course of the run. So all that being said, I would say it's been the biggest adjustment for me is just trying to understand this car's capability and, you know, race differently because of its capability. So you've had a lot of change at home, too. How's the chaos there? you've got a small army at home.

So not only have you had a new job, now you've got a new life cycle to deal with at home, too, on a daily basis. Yeah, we're over halfway to basketball starting five. It's been a lot, truthfully. But at the same time, it's, you know, having twins is definitely a challenge, especially when you have a three and a half year old too. But the twins have not been near as hard as I anticipated. I'm sure my wife will kill me if she's seeing.

this interview. But I think it's about to get really, really hard because they're about to start crawling. But up to this point, they've been way easier than I thought they would be. I'm not the one at home with them all the time. But I will say that when they start crawling, it will be 1,000% full-blown chaos. So as you go forward, what's the weakness? What do we need to work on with the 19 to put you into championship, realistic championship, as we go into the last 10 weeks now that you're locked in. Yeah, just execution and stage points. You know, that's the things that we have to do.

And, you know, I think the stage points come if we start executing. You know, it's something that we just, we really have not done all season long. And, you know, even starting on the poll, those three weeks in a row, we didn't get a lot of stage points. I mean, Charlotte was a great example. You know, you start on the pole, you come down the first pit stop. You know, you get a penalty. You go straight to the back. You drive back to the top 10.

you have another bad pit stop, go to 30th or whatever. You know, you just can't be doing that, especially when you start up front, you have to maximize it and get stage points. And for us, if you're going to make a championship run, you have to be able to get stage points. And that's something that we've not been able to do even with starting up front.

So for us, I would say that's the biggest focus is just, you know, executing races from start to finish. You know, a lot of the time this season, we've got the finish. We just don't execute all race long, and get the stage points to go with it. And yesterday we finally kind of put a whole day together, and obviously the result was there. So that would be the biggest focus point, I think, for us on the 19 team.

Well, you're doing a great job. It's been fun to watch the transition and even more fun to watch you get to Victory Lane. Whether you enjoyed it or not, you still got to Victory Lane, and now you can take that stress and take a deep breath and just go out and race and know that you guys can get it done. So hopefully we can talk to you soon. future. Congratulations and appreciate you taking the time today. Yeah, thanks for having me, buddy. Appreciate it.