Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR on FOX - Victory Lap: Chase Briscoe

Episode Date: July 9, 2026

Chicagoland winner Chase Briscoe sits down with us for an exclusive, wide-ranging interview. Chase takes us inside the brilliant Lap 215 green-flag pit cycle engineered by James Small, the intense mental math of holding off his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Christopher Bell in the final laps, and the immense pride of taking the red, white, and blue Bass Pro Shops Toyota straight to Victory Lane on America's biggest weekend. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The excitement of the FIFA World Cup is now streaming live on Fox One, the official English streaming platform to catch every unforgettable moment. Fox One brings the action straight to your screen so you never miss a goal. Download Fox One and experience the FIFA World Cup live. Welcome, my friend, my guy, Chase Briscoe. Our most recent winner in the NASCAR Cup series, Chase, how are we doing? I'm doing good. What about you, Mama? You know, it's a beautiful morning.

You know, sun's out. Great day to be alive. Yeah, great day to be alive. The dogs are barking. Kids are running around crazy. Yeah. No, that's at your house. That's not my house.

That's my house, yeah. You said you couldn't hear him. I can't hear him. I can't hear him. So, you know, I just wanted you to feel the vibes, you know. Okay, all right. Oh, bro, you guys have been on a tear here recently. Just stacking points and stacking good days,

bringing a fast race coach to the track. And you finally broke through the win. How does it feel to be back in the wing column in the Cup series? Yeah, it's great. It's crazy just how the mindset, I guess, has changed from, you know, going from Stuart Haas where I went like two and a half years without winning a race. You kind of just, I don't know, you get kind of caught up in, well, it's probably not going to happen for a while again. So then you go to JGR and, you know, you win three races in the first year. It just becomes normal and expected.

And, you know, when you go 20-something weeks without winning, it starts to teach you up. So, yeah, glad that we were finally able to get back in the wind column. I've seen my teammates winning, obviously, with Denny a lot, and, you know, Ty went in earlier this year. And it was glad that we were finally able to hang a 19 banner up there at the shop. It felt like it'd been forever. So, yeah, definitely feels nice to get one. Can you talk about that difference between being at SHR,

especially towards the end, right? Like, it was kind of, you're just kind of not going through emotions, but it was ending, so the expectations are different. And now you go over to JGR, you have three ways. wins last year, like you said, you make a good playoff push for the championship. And so the expectations are maybe a little different. Can you kind of explain the differences? Yeah, it's definitely different. You know, just at SHR, like, you wouldn't go to the, I mean, you were going every weekend to try to win. Like, don't get any wrong on that. We were all trying

everything we had every single weekend. But I think realistically, you just knew that there was going to be some weeks where, you know, if you can run, say eighth, like, that's a solid day. where at JGR if we run 8th, it's like, what in the world went wrong? Just the expectation and yeah, just how they approach the mindset is way different. You know, I was telling Marissa last night, I said it's crazy being at JGR, like how different. I said not that they're numb to wins, but like, you should go win. Like it's not, it's a big deal, but it's not a big deal at the same time. Like you did your job.

Congrats. You should win. It's just a totally different atmosphere than what I've been at a lot of my career. So, yeah, it's definitely different. You know, and I wasn't at SHR when, you know, Kevin was winning nine races in a year and all four cars were winning cup races. You know, I think if I was there during that time, I think it probably felt very, very similar. Because when you are winning all the time, it's almost easy. Like, as crazy as that sounds, you know, you can just go to the racetrack and you're always in the mix where it's when you're struggling, where it just feels.

like it's almost impossible. Like you can't figure out how those cars are going that much faster. And I've lived both sides of it, obviously. So yeah, it definitely is different. But yeah, it's a great place to be, especially when our cars are as fast as they are right now. What is it about the beginning of the year?

This seems like for y'all's group, I don't know. I don't really feel like you change anything of your processes, but it seems at the beginning of year for the 19 last year, it's been like a grind to get going. Like you see the speed,

but the results in the same, speed don't make sense. And then you get to about Code 600 and all of a sudden it's like a light switch. But I know internally it can't be like that. No, that's definitely the truth. You know, for on the 19, at least for whatever reason, it's definitely been, I think last year is just learning, learning the car, right? And learning, you know, everything that was JGR. But this year, I mean, coming off the championship four deal, like we were expecting to go light it up at the beginning of the year and, you know, be right there battling for the regular season points lead. And it just wasn't

the case. You know, I think from a speed standpoint, it was, you know, more than capable of happening, just a lot of things, you know, three out of the first four weeks, we finished 37th, you know, get caught up in the big one at Daytona, running second or third, I think a Coda and break a transmission,

finished 37th there, Phoenix, blow a tire, like, it was just a lot of this misfortune. And then at a lot of the races, even early on in the summer, you know, have great speed. You know, Charlotte Coke 600 could have been battling for the I cause a crash there. You know, Texas have a car capable of winning, get wrecked on pit road.

Like it's just been a lot of, you know, mishaps and misfortune, you know, on my end, on mechanical end, like just a lot of different things. So, yeah, I felt like over the last, I don't know, four, five, six weeks, we just finally started executing. And, you know, when you execute with the speed that we have, you're going to be in contention to win the races and going to be running up front, getting the finishes. And, you know, that's just something that truthfully we weren't doing at the beginning

of the season. Yeah, when you look at your group on the 19 and your leader, James Smalls, and you guys, you know, I saw the picture of the selfie and it looked like everyone was stoked. Everyone was happy. What is James emotions like going from, you know, trying to dig hard and get to Victory Lane? And then when it finally happens, you know, what is he like after the fact? Yeah, James and Victory Lane is like my favorite person. He's just a very, he's a very intense individual. Like, he just, he works so hard at what.

does that it's fun to see the fruit of that come come out in victory lane and you know for these 15 20 minutes it's like all this work all the effort that you know he puts in the team puts in you know they just get to celebrate that finally and it's just a super fun environment to be a part of because of that reason that I think you know just james expects so much out of us right that whenever you do finally cross that mountain top it's it's a lot of fun for him just to let loose for you know, those 15, 20, 30 minutes, whatever it is in Victory Lane. So, yeah, it's pretty fun to see how fired up you get. You've been in the situation of racing teammates a lot.

Now it's been at the front of the field, more than in the middle of the field. That's different. How do you go about going about that, especially when one of your teammates is Denny Hamlin and Denny does one of the best jobs, I feel like, in the field of putting people in a situation that may make them a little uncomfortable and make them, make a mistake. So how do you, how do you kind of flip the script and put him in those situations? Yeah, it's, it's a challenging thing to, you know, do as a race car driver, you know, especially when it's your teammates, just because at the end of the day, like, you have to do what's best

for the company and you can't, you know, wreck you and the other guy for the win or whatever, like a company car needs to win. So the unique thing about JGR is, it's, you know, very similar to, you know, Hendrick or something where, you know, typically your racing. your teammates for the win and you know that. So you're racing in the whole race trying to get the track position on them and all these things. But it's hard at the end of these races, especially when it is your teammate, because there's time to win the race.

Like you do need to do stuff that, you know, can even be risky for yourself, right? Like you have to make these big moves that has potential to crash, you know, you and your other guy or, you know, you have to put the other guy in a really bad spot. Well, when it's your teammate, you can't do that. that. You have to be a little bit smarter about it. So it's a challenge to do those things, you know, while you're racing teammates for sure. But JGR, you do get a lot of practice, I guess, in a sense, doing that. Like you're always racing around your teammates. And you kind of do understand the foundation of what's okay and what's not okay. And whenever you do

cross that line, obviously the Monday meetings, you know, we figure that out and, you know, we grow from it. Yeah, you guys had a lot of a lot of reps. at it, lap after lap at Nashville. That was, man, that battle between you, Seabell, and Danny was just, it was like a dog fight. It was like watching fighter pilots in a dog fight, man. That must have been so much

fun racing for the wind like that. Yeah, it was fun. You know, it was kind of two weeks back to back. A Coke 600 was kind of the same way. I think it was the end of stage three. There was like all four of us were up there battling for the wind of the stage and, you know, two and three wide. So it is fun. But it's

frustrating when you're not the one that wins, because you do that you had every opportunity that they had and you didn't get it done. But yeah, the Nashville race was pretty cool. I think from a company standpoint, just having all three of us, you know, be three wide, literally taking the white flag. And, yeah, I wish we would have came out on the better end of it. But regardless, it was still pretty cool. What's the relationship between you and your teammates?

Like, I feel like that's something that no one, no one ever really knows how all the teammates are. Are they friends off the track? Are they just, you know, friends in the, in the, the business end, like, what is it like between you and the other three JGR teammates? Yeah, I mean, I don't know what it was like at JGR before I got there, obviously, but I mean, I feel like right now, even just in my short tenures, this is the best it's, you know, truth they ever been. You know, all of us get along.

We all have this high respect level for each other. We all know that we can go win races, and we all feel like we're pulling the rope in the same direction, and we all feel like we can bring stuff to the table to make all of us better. So, yeah, I definitely, I've enjoyed it. with it. You know, I've known, it's kind of unique for me because I've known Christopher basically over half my life. You know, I didn't really have any interaction with Ty or Denny before I came over here. But yeah, we just all get along honestly really, really well. And we talk off the racetrack, you know, before the races and stuff like that. And yeah, we just get along. And it makes it

nice when you can all get along. Obviously, we all race each other extremely hard on the racetrack. But I think there's, like I'm saying, just this respect level between all of us that is, It's a very hard thing, I think, to get when you have four teammates. And, yeah, for us, I think we all have that right now. I kind of want to go back to go forward a little bit. There was a time where you didn't know what, not a time, there's been multiple times, where you didn't know what you were going to be doing as far as your race career next. And I remember as we're getting closer to Indianapolis, working on some kid named Chase Biscoe's car in the Arka race.

And my crew chief was Corey LaJoy. and we had a time. I thought we were going to win that Arka race for sure. Is that your first Arka race? Yeah, it was my first ever race, yeah. Yeah, we, okay, so we about had it. We about had them licked on that night, and this strategy didn't work out.

When you look at coming from that point where you're couch surfing to now where you're at with your beautiful family, like, have you had time to really take in that journey yet or you just still hammered down looking forward all the time? No, definitely, you know, I see Facebook memories and seven just popped up. It was like a week and a half ago.

It was 10 years ago. I won my first ever archer race. And to think that 10 years ago, I mean, that feels like a long time when you think 10 years ago, but it really does not feel very long at all. And just to think that in 10 years, I went from, you know, sleeping on couches, volunteer in there at Cunningham Motorsports,

and just thinking if I ever won another archer race, like my career was made, to now, you know, this weekend's going to be 200 cup starts and to be driving it at Joe Gibbs racing, you know, to have six cup series wins. Like it never in a million years did I think that I would be doing that. Like honestly, the goal was try to try to run one truck race. And if you could make it to one truck race, you were a NASCAR driver.

And that was more, I mean, I never thought I'd run an arc race, let alone a truck race. So you had to have, you know, coming up on 200 cup starts now and to be able to have success in the cup series, it's something that I definitely, you know, look back on and think about a lot. When you won the first time, it was Tony Stewart that was giving you the call. Now it's Coach Gibbs, who Tony probably learned a lot of the business end from. What is that like working for two different legends and two very different type of legends?

Yeah, it's definitely, you know, two different, you know, people for sure. you know, Tony was from the driver side. Coach is obviously from the coaching and ownership side. But regardless, just how my career is kind of panned out and played out is honestly really, really cool. When you look back and think about how I was this diehard Tony fan and then to get to drive for, you know, Tony and the 14 car. But then now to drive for coach and, you know, really where Tony's career started, it's pretty crazy to think about. I think the only thing that would have made it crazy is if I was driving the 20 car. Yeah, it's just, it's nuts to have my whole career is kind of panned out.

And, yeah, extremely blessed for sure. Yeah, your family has gotten bigger. You got three kids running around now. What has it been like trying to balance that, trying to make sure that you can be in the race car and put, you know, food on the table and also be there for your kids? Yeah, it's a really tough thing to do. I actually sit with coach probably, I don't know,

two or three months ago and it kind of asked him that. Like how do you give 100% to your job, whether it's driving a race car, coaching a football team, but also give 100% to your family and your kids at home. And it is an extremely hard thing to do is to do them both at a really, really high level.

And I think for me, the big thing is obviously having a great support system with my wife, right? Like she's just an absolute rock star because she's home alone with three kids a lot during the week, almost every single weekend. We have a four and a half year-and-a-half-year-old twins. And I mean, she is, I mean, we're in the thick of it,

but she's really in the thick of it on these weekends when it's just, you know, her and, you know, having a support system with, you know, my father-in-law and mother-in-law, then my parents, you know, being able to drive down from Indiana a lot and come help, it takes the village. And, you know, without Marissa, for sure,

I couldn't go and do my job at the level that I do it, just being able to have that truck. that, you know, she's got things handled at home. So, yeah, it's a very hard job. I tell myself all the time, if you think you got it bad, you could be Marissa right now. She's three little ones. And, yeah, she's the one that has a really hard job.

So, yeah, it's just something though, going back to, you know, being able to do both of them 100%. I think the big thing is just being able to, thing that helped me the most is actually talking to Eric Camerola about it is just, you know, when you're at home, be home. Don't even think about racing, literally shut off. off the whole outside world. And then when you're at the racetrack,

kind of not shut off your family, right, but be focused on what you're doing. And I think, you know, for me and Marissa, you know, she knows that when I'm at the shop or at work, like unless it's an emergency, like, let me just focus there. So when I come home, I can be 100% focused at home too. Your oldest has been kind of wheeling a lot.

And he's been driving, I feel, like, something, whether it's a lab or a go cart since he was like two. yeah he's been he has a little go card that he go we've like we needed to turn around in our house for a drive through like to be able to turn around in our driveway and we made it like a mini martinsville it's like a little oval um so he's got a go car that he rips around out there and i guess that's like my one thing that i'll do at home is i'll get out there and rip with him but yeah ever since he's been two i guess that's when he first got it you know we put him on this thing and like just here you go go drive and see what happens and like he instantly knew how to countersteered.

And now, I mean, he full-blown drifts this thing all over the place. He wants to race, but I don't know. He needs to be doing that at four years old already. But, yeah, he's pretty good. I mean, I feel like obviously right, I'm biased. But, I mean, I feel like I show videos into other people. They're like, dude, how does he do that? Like, this thing goes like 15, 20 miles an hour.

And, I mean, he can drift it, the whole nine yards. He's pretty good at it. you might be you might be creating an animal over there well it was I felt like bad uh you know the last Christmas when mom had all these like home videos right and she pulled up a video the first time I ever drove a go car I was like four and a half five years old same age as him I couldn't even go in a straight line and I'm like this kid's been drifting since he's like two or three years old um so yeah I might be in trouble here in a couple of years well I'd be in trouble it's a good problem to have it's a good problem to have

I'd be remiss to talk about a little bit your faith. You have a very strong faith. I think part of your victory celebration, honestly, probably every time you get in and out of the car, you take a moment. What's that moment about? What are you thinking about in those moments when you take that knee and you kind of are just in your thoughts?

Yeah, every time, you know, it kind of started in 2018, I did it after winning the roval, and it was kind of just this thing. I felt like the Holy Spirit was calling me to do it. And ever since then, I've just kind of done it. And yeah, I just get out of the car and, you know, I get down on one knee. I just say a quick little prayer.

I normally, you know, tell him thank you for the opportunity and just let me use it to glorify him, you know, whether that's in interviews or how I act after the race or whatever it may be. And then, you know, normally try to get his home safely. And, you know, just say a quick little prayer. And, yeah, I've just done that in my whole career, you know, after a win. You know, obviously I'm praying all the time, whether I win or not. But, you know, it's just been a moment for me to kind of sit there and, you know, take a second and, yeah, say a little prayer and then we'll do our little celebration. I think Peyton Manning said it. He said, I don't think God cares about a football game.

Basically, he's like, I don't think he cares about that. But it's not about that. It's about using the platform to, like you said, glorify and push forward and spread positivity. So I always love, I always love when I see you do that. I feel like it's a. very good connection for us all to remember what it's all about. I will say, though, you know, we grade burnouts here, Chase, and we're happy to see you in Victor way. I thought it was my worst burnout I've ever done. Man, you said it, not me. Like, what's going on here? What were you? Yeah, it wasn't very good. I told the guys on the plane, I said that was the worst burnout I've ever done my career. The tire blew so fast, probably because they were 50-lap tires, but my thing is I always get it to the highest year. That was a fifth-year burnout. Like, it was

Like the tires were ripping. That's why there was a lot of smoke for the short duration. But yeah, they blew so fast. I didn't really get to, like, do one because I didn't want to tear the car all up. But yeah, I always get the thing to fifth gear. And that's why there's a ton of smoke. These guys are doing it in first and second gear, you don't get a lot of smoke. Like even Talladego when I went Talladego last year, I was fifth year, 7,000 RPMs in a burnout.

Like the tires were going 180-something mile an hour. So, yeah, it's all about Will Kimmel, you told me that back. in the arc of days. He said, you got to get that thing in the highest gear you can and just let it rip. So, yeah, I was bummed about my burnout. Okay. Well, at least we all know we can look forward to the next one. Yeah, literally it did like one spin and then I was burning up the racetrack and I was going to nose it up to the fence as I was doing the burnout. Then it blew the tire like halfway up there, so I didn't really get to do it. Yeah, that's okay. It's all right. The effort, the thought

was there. It would have been great if it didn't blow the tire. Well, when you still, When you stand on top of the, you always stand on top of the roof, I feel like, too. Yeah, I like hyping the crowd. It looks good. Yeah, yeah, get them going. Yeah, and then I did the fishing celebration. Oh, you did?

Yeah, I hit them with the. Okay, that's a good. I missed that point, but that's, that's solid. Okay, well, I'm going to give you more marks because, you know, it's about entertaining the crowd. If you're throwing a little fishing line out there and reeling them in, yeah, the Bass Pro guy, that's pretty awesome. Yeah, I hyped the crowd up, and they were going nuts,

and I pointed at the Bass Pro on the hood. I did that. Man, I appreciate your time. I'm so proud of you, brother. I feel like it's been a long time. I always feel like it's been a long time coming, even though your six wins in at this point, I should expect you to win, which I do.

But like, I feel like it's one for the racers, you know, the guys that don't make it and that try so hard to get there and you were on that same type of path and you were able to kind of shed some light on that. There's a picture of us after you went at Phoenix and your walk, because you blew the tires out of it

and you're walking out of the road. I think I'm jumping into your arms. I had some dress shoes on. I about busted my ass trying to get over to you. But, man, I'm just really excited for your success, bro. Yeah, I appreciate it, buddy. All right, man, take care. Chase Biscoll, Cup Series winner.