TOYOTA RACING – Chase Briscoe
NASCAR Cup Series Quotes
SPEEDWAY, Ind. (July 24, 2026) – Joe Gibbs Racing driver Chase Briscoe was made available to the media on Friday prior to the NASCAR Cup Series race from Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
CHASE BRISCOE, No. 19 Mobil 1 Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
Can you tell us a little bit about what you have planned this weekend being back home?
“It has been a fun couple of days. I got to go back to Mitchell. We came in Wednesday night, and spent all day yesterday there. Getting to see grandparents and aunts and uncles, and just getting to spend time at home, which was really, really nice. Today, the kids are all going to the zoo. Tonight, we are going to Hinkle Fieldhouse and doing some stuff with Butler, which is really cool. I grew up a diehard Butler basketball fan – I watched every game. One of my favorite players was Ronald Nored, who is the coach now, so that is going to be really neat, but yeah. It’s been a fun time. We will do the family cookout tomorrow tonight – but just getting to spend time with family at home is always nice.”
Would you ever be interested in running the double?
“I get this question every now and then. Truthfully, I love the Indy 500. The whole month of May. I watch every practice. Obviously, tune in to qualifying and the race too. I don’t know, for whatever reason, I’ll be the first one to admit, I don’t think I’m man enough to do it. Like – I don’t want to wreck at 240. I’ve always joked – I would love to start-and-park the Indy 500. I don’t think that will ever happen, but I would love to do the pre-race, driver intros, ride around, do the pace lap, take the green flag, and then I’ll just pull her down pit road and watch the rest of the race. I don’t know. I’ve never had an itching desire to do the race once I got the to the Cup Series. Before I got to the Cup Series, I wanted to do the Indy 500, and once I got here, I got married and I had kids, and if I’m 31 and single with no kids, I would probably run the double, but having kids now, I just don’t want to risk getting hurt – and it can happen in a Cup car too. I think just adding that risk is just not something I’m willing to do right now. That is the same reason I stepped away from Sprint Car racing as a driver. I don’t want to get hurt. I’ve had a lot of buddies get hurt, or paralyzed here lately. It can happen in a Cup car, but just adding that risk is just not worth it right now.”
What would it mean to you to win the Brickyard 400?
“It would mean everything. I would put this race over the Daytona 500 or any other race. If there is one race – you could take away every other win that I’ve had in my career away – if I could just have one Brickyard 400, I would be happy and content. This is the one race I want to win more than any other. I’ve put a ton of pressure on myself to come here and try to win. Every time you don’t win that’s one less opportunity. You don’t really have a ton, when you think about the big scheme of things. You only get to run here maybe 15 times in your career, so to try to win one is pretty difficult to do. It would mean a lot. I was able to win here in 2020 in Xfinity, but it was during COVID. What makes Indy so special is all of my family and friends being here and fans, and I didn’t get to experience that with any of them. It was just completely empty. Hopefully, I can win this weekend or at least at some point in my career. It would be the highlight of my career for sure.”
What has the momentum been like for you and the team?
“Truthfully, the last four weeks – I think we finished first, second, third and like 36th – and that has kind of been our season has gone. We either finished in the top-five or we are 30th on back. Even the first four weeks of the season, I think we were 35th, 36th, 36th and 2nd. That is just how our season has been. We finish in the top-five or 10 or we are 30th on back. Hopefully, this is one of those weeks where we are in the top-five and finish. Even those races where we haven’t got the finish, we’ve been fast enough to win or run up front, we just have stuff happen. The execution piece has not been great for us. That is something we need to clean up on our group, but speed wise has been phenomenal. Hopefully, this weekend we can do it all right and have the speed and have the execution. I know our Camry should be really fast, so we will just see if we can do those little things right. I feel like at this track, it is amplified more than anywhere else. You have to execute. You can’t have a bad pit stop. Your strategy has to be on point, and if you lose track position, your day is typically pretty much over. You just can’t get drive back like you can at other tracks. Hopefully, we can do all of those things right.”
Do you think there is a legitimate shot at winning the championship if you don’t get to the top-six?
“I definitely think there is a legitimate shot, no matter where you are at. Now it makes your life way harder if you are not in the top-five. If you have a 2011 Tony Stewart run where you win five out of 10 races. You are going to be right there in the mix for it – especially with how weighted wins are now with those extra bonus points. You can make up a lot of points quick. Us at Chicago is a great example. I think we were 109 points back of fifth going into in Chicago, and we left Chicago, 40 points out of fifth. You can gain so many points if you can win a race. I think once the Chase starts. If you can win three or four races, like you can close up really, really quickly. I don’t think you are ever going to be out of it, as long as you can win races. If you can win races, and dominate stages and things, you can make big, big chunks out of the points pretty quickly. You still have to have a little bit go your way with the guy you are chasing. Like they can’t be having 45 point days when you are scoring 70 points. You have to have some bad days in there. I don’t know if you are ever out of it, but you have to win. If you can’t win races, you are not going to make up big chunks on the lead.”
If you win, would you climb the fence?
“I’m doing it all. I’m climbing the fence. I’m kissing the bricks, I’m going in the grandstands. It might take them an hour and a half just to get me to victory lane. I’ll be doing all of it. Hopefully it happens. It would be entertaining. It would be long; I’m just warning you. There might two, three chapters of victory lane. It will be fun.”
Do you have any thoughts on the new Days of Thunder?
“Yeah, I’m excited. That will be something that is huge, truthfully, for the sport in general. Just to have – a movie, whether that is PIXAR Cars type movie or Talladega Nights, like a comedy, or something as serious as Tom Cruise coming to do Days of Thunder 2, it is just a great thing to move the needle in our sport. I’m excited to see what happens with it. I think we are definitely seeing upticks in people coming to the race track and being a part of that, even if they are just Tom Cruise fans and they want to see Tom Cruise at the track. I’m very interested to see the filming process of it. I’m assuming they are going to have to have a car on the race track when we are racing. Tom Cruise does all of his own stunts, so is he going to be ripping that thing at Daytona or wherever we are at. I’m excited for that piece of it, and just excited to be a part of the process whether I am just a car on the race track or I have one-liner in it. I think it will be pretty cool to be a part of that process.”
Do you feel like people are going to be very excited to have a cameo in this?
“I think so. The guys that know. Connor Zilisch has probably never seen it. I know Christopher Bell has never seen Days of Thunder, so you all need to give him a hard time about that. 99 percent of the field is going to be dying to be in the movie one way or another. Truthfully, when I heard it may be coming, it made me think of Kyle (Busch), with the Rowdy thing, and just how much he probably would have wanted to be a part of it. That kind of made me sad, but I think a lot of the drivers in the field will be trying everything they can to be apart of it.
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