TOYOTA RACING – Chase Briscoe
NASCAR Cup Series Quotes
DARLINGTON, SC (March 21, 2026) – Joe Gibbs Racing driver Chase Briscoe was made available to the media on Saturday prior to the NASCAR Cup Series race from Darlington Raceway.
CHASE BRISCOE, No. 19 Free Bird Southern Spring Water Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
What changes do you think we will see in tomorrow’s race?
“I mean, I don’t know what was wrong with the package here at Darlington before (laughter). I mean, I think it’ll be good. No matter what package you come to Darlington with, you’re going to slip and slide around, and that’s just going tobe amplified now. So, I think you’re going to have more guys that are kind of coming and going throughout the field. I think there’s going to be a bigger discrepancy now in short run versus long run guys. I think this is the one race is probably more wide open than any other, just because it’s the first time we’re doing it. Nobody has a notebook on anything right now where as we go throughout the year, with Dover and Darlington 2 and all these things, teams are just going to start getting better and better and understanding what we need, where right now nobody has a clue what this thing’s going to do. So, yeah, I’m excited for this weekend. I’m always excited to come to Darlington, but certainly the more power, slipping, sliding around. It’s going be a lot of fun.”
What did you think about this track when you started coming here?
“Honestly, I loved this place from the first laps I ran around it. I don’t know, just something clicked right away. I still had a lot to learn my first time coming here, but the style of racing here reminded me so much of Sprint Car racing where you’re constantly changing what you were doing. You’re always searching and trying to find that little bit more grip, and you go to some of these racetracks and you’re pretty repetitive. Like you just do the same thing, time in, time out. We’re here – you don’t ever run two laps the same. I mean, every lap, your car is just changing so much, so you’re always adapting, and that’s what I kind of loved about this place from the get go and then you just added the fact that you’re sliding all over the place. Yeah, really from the first time I came here, I was like, man, this is one of my favorite places, and then as the success came in, it obviously got closer and closer to the top. So yeah, I’ve always loved Darlington. It’s been a very influential place in my career and really my life in general.”
How would 750 horsepower affect the mile-and-a-half package?
“I don’t know. I could see it going either way. If you start going faster, it probably makes the field even more spread out, I feel like. Just the difference in the top teams and the bottom teams are going to be even more extreme. So maybe it just is one of those things where the rich kind of get richer, where right now, like we are not underpowered, but like we’re all relatively the same speed for the most part, right? At least from 1st to 30th and in qualifying is only a couple tenths where I think as you add more power, like the setups, everything is just going to become more and more important. So, I don’t I don’t know. I could see it going either way. I think it could make it maybe a little bit better. Maybe it makes it worse. So, yeah, I’m obviously not against it. I mean, it’s way more fun for any of us to go drive a 900 horsepower car versus a 200 horsepower car, right? You always want more, but on the mile-and-a-halves, I don’t know what it would do, to be honest with you. I think some tracks, we could definitely use it, but there’s other tracks where maybe the product’s as good as it’s going get right now. So yeah, I don’t know which way it would go if I’m being honest.”
How are you gauging this weekend going in balancing confidence versus being cautious?
“I feel like this is one of those tracks where typically things that work, like no matter the O’Reilly car, truck, like you can still find some speed doing it, but I wouldn’t say I’m like overly confident coming into this weekend just because so much has changed. I think it could be a totally different style of racing now. I mean, just even in a simulator, it drives nothing like what he used to drive like. So I think it’s hard to come into this one specifically and be like, oh yeah, our stuff’s going to be really, really good. I’m hopeful that it’s good, but you don’t really know until we go out here and practice. So yeah, hopefully, our team will hit it right. I do think it’s going to be one of those races where only a handful of teams are really going to hit it and have a huge advantage. So yeah, it’ll be interesting.”
Will you know more after practice or do you have to get into the race? What kind of driver do you think will excel in this type of race?
“Certainly going out in practice, you’re going to at least have a better idea of what to expect. You can validate some of your simulation. I mean, you’re still not going to have the full picture, but I do think it gives you at least somewhat in the ballpark of kind of what you need to do. I don’t know. I think that it’s such an unknown right now with what this thing is going to drive like that nobody really knows, but I would think certainly the guys that are good on the long run are good when the car is slipping and sliding around, those would be the guys I would think would be good just because I think that’s how the cars are going to drive. So, it will be interesting to see. We could all go out here and practice it as the complete opposite of what we think is going to be. That’s the exciting thing, I think, for all of us.”
How do you prepare for a race like this?
“I mean really, just the sim. That it. The video, like, you can go back and look at it, but it’s going be so different, right? Even qualifying what we’ve done here in the past, you just have so much less down for, so much more horse power that. Certain little tendencies in qualifying will still work, but just what was successful last time isn’t going to work this time. So, it’s hard whenever you’re trying to study for races like this. Tonight will be one where you’re definitely going to go and look at a lot of stuff, just trying to figure out what other guys are doing, but yeah, really just a simulator. Even that, like, that’s what I was saying earlier, it could be way off. You just don’t know until we get here. I would say this is going to be one of the more exciting practice sessions, at least for myself, just because of the unknowns, and then qualifying is going be a lot of fun too, just because it’s going kind of be, you know, who can figure it out? I’m looking forward to that.”
Do you think we will see more Darlington stripes with this new package?
“I think you’re going to see a lot more of it. It is just going to be easier. The harder the car is to drive, the easier it is to get the fence, and typically, the less downforce you have, the more advantageous it is to start running closer and closer and closer to the wall just because that becomes your grip. Look we could race rental cars around here and we’re probably going to put it in the fence eventually, but when you add just all the added power and less downforce, I think it’s certainly going to be one of those races where a lot of guys are just making mistakes and getting into the fence.”
About Toyota
Toyota (NYSE:TM) has been a part of the cultural fabric in the U.S. for nearly 70 years, and is committed to advancing sustainable, next-generation mobility through our Toyota and Lexus brands, plus our nearly 1,500 dealerships.
Toyota directly employs nearly 48,000 people in the U.S. who have contributed to the design, engineering, and assembly of more than 35 million cars and trucks at our 11 manufacturing plants. In 2025, Toyota’s plant in North Carolina began to assemble automotive batteries for electrified vehicles.
For more information about Toyota, visit www.ToyotaNewsroom.com.
