Chase Briscoe: From couch-surfing to the NASCAR Cup championship?
AVONDALE, Ariz. — Years of couch-surfing and scraping for money while grinding away at race shops and pitching to team owners and sponsors could all pay off for Chase Briscoe this Sunday.
Chase Briscoe will take to the grid for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway as one of four drivers eligible for the championship. A finish ahead of William Byron, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson will vault Briscoe from the improbable to immortality in NASCAR.
Briscoe came up in a family of local racers in the area of Mitchell, Indiana, where he grew up. By the 2010s, he stowed his talents and heritage away with all of his life’s possessions in a vehicle bound for North Carolina – with no option to fail and a dream to succeed.
Ultimately, a little bit of luck lifted Briscoe’s hard work into the stratosphere – like one night at a restaurant when a chance meeting with an executive at HighPoint.com garnered sponsorship for 2020 – when he won nine NASCAR Xfinity Series races and secured a Cup ride with Stewart-Haas Racing for 2021.
A childhood dream came true – but often your heroes are the hardest to meet.
Although he earned two wins and as many playoff berths for hero-turned-team owner Tony Stewart, Briscoe joined SHR when they were on the decline. In 2023, he finished 30th in points – felled to him by a team error that, when adjusted, led to the stiffest points penalty in NASCAR history.
Yet, Briscoe’s talent shined through.
In 2022, he earned his first Cup win at Phoenix Raceway and made it all the way to the Round of 8 in the playoffs. Then, as SHR was winding down operations in 2024, he won the regular season finale – the Southern 500 at Darlington no less – to make the playoffs.
Briscoe’s road to the Championship 4 has been somewhat of a surprise to many. Some people believed he wouldn’t even win this season, yet he has won three times at some of the most iconic tracks in NASCAR – Pocono to finally win for JGR, Darlington to win the Southern 500 again and Talladega to lock into the Championship 4.
Much like his childhood hero, Briscoe lit up the Cup Series during a stellar summer stretch that turned into a fantastic fall. In the last 19 races, he has three wins 12 top-10 finishes, 16 top-10 starts, 789 laps led and – excluding two outlier DNFs – an average finish of 7.88.
That average start stat is critical; Briscoe runs well in races because he starts well. In the NextGen era at Phoenix where, the average start of a winner is 6.3. For the Championship race, it’s 3.7.
Those strengths mean Briscoe is more than just the heartfelt favorite in this Sunday’s title fight. He’s his own hero who could make his dreams come true.
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Jonathan Fjeld View All
Jonathan Fjeld is the co-owner of the The Racing Experts, LLC. He has been with TRE since 2010.
A Twin Valley, MN, native, Fjeld became a motorsports fan at just three years old (first race was the 2002 Pennsylvania 500). He worked as a contributor and writer for TRE from 2010-18. Since then, he has stepped up and covered 24 NASCAR race weekends and taken on a larger role with TRE. He became the co-owner and managing editor in 2023 and has guided the site to massive growth in that time.
Fjeld has covered a wide array of stories and moments over the years, including Kevin Harvick's final Cup Series season, the first NASCAR national series disqualification in over 50 years, Shane van Gisbergen's stunning win in Chicago and the first Cup Series race at Road America in 66 years – as well as up-and-coming drivers' stories and stories from inside the sport, like the tech it takes for Hendrick Motorsports to remain a top-tier team.
Currently, he resides in Albuquerque, N.M., where he works for KOB 4, an NBC station. He works as a digital producer and does on-air reports. He loves spending time with friends and family, playing and listening to music, exploring new places, being outdoors, reading books and writing among other activities. You can email him at fjeldjonathan@gmail.com