NASCAR Hall of Famer Joe Gibbs recently shared details about Chase Briscoe’s official announcement that he will be joining Joe Gibbs Racing. Briscoe is expected to take over for current No. 19 driver Martin Truex Jr. when he retires after the 2024 season. Briscoe, who currently drives for Stewart-Haas Racing, was on the free agent market after SHR announced it would disband at the end of the year.
Briscoe will be the first driver from the SHR team to be confirmed for next season’s Cup Series. While there were rumors that other NASCAR teams were considering signing the 29-year-old, Joe Gibbs’ team came forward first and won the bidding war. JGR owner Joe Gibbs, who is worth $60 million according to Celebrity Net Worth, spoke to SiriusXM NASCAR Radio about the importance of getting the Briscoe deal done as soon as possible for the 2025 season.
It’s a big decision. First of all, I’ll say we only have four cars and a quarter of our residents depend on it. So it was a big decision. We thought about it and we worked on it for two months. Because we felt like we were close to it, like Martin was last year. “And we could get it all done and have Martin back,” Gibbs said.
NASCAR veteran Truex Jr. had a one-year contract extension with JGR for the past three years before recently announcing his retirement from the Cup Series for good. That prompted Gibbs, 83, to speed up the process of replacing Briscoe in the No. 19 Toyota. “So it definitely could happen this year. And we’ve been working on it for quite a while. But as we analyzed things and looked at a large number of drivers, we realized that the problem with choosing the Chase was that other people also wanted the Chase. “When Martin told me that, I said right away, certainly we’re not the only ones here, but we’re going to the Chase soon, and I wanted to get this done quickly,” Gibbs continued.
The current sponsor of the No. 19 car, Bass Pro Shops, and crew chief James Small will remain with the No. 19 car team when Brisco joins for the 2025 season. “So this all happened very quickly, but we actually spent a few months working on it and analyzing everything so that we were ready when the decision was made,” Gibbs added.
Joe Gibbs revealed the reasons behind signing Briscoe
After Truex Jr. announced his retirement, Gibbs immediately selected Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 Ford car for the SHR team, to replace Denny Hamlin in the No. 19 Toyota in a lineup of four full-time drivers in the Cup Series.
In a conversation with Bob Pockrass, who drives the No. 11 Toyota, Christopher Bell in the No. 20 car, Ty Gibbs in the No. 54 car and Martin Truex Jr. in the No. 19 Camry, coach Gibbs revealed his reasons for doing so. Briscoe, an Indiana native, signed for 2025: “We were looking for someone who had the experience we needed but was still young, and that’s reflected in his resume. I feel like he (Chase Briscoe) is a guy who, when you analyze it all, might be a little bit like Martin (Truex Jr.). When Martin got here, we all knew his resume and everything he’d been through.
He’d been through a lot to get to where he is now,” Gibbs said. Brisco currently sits 16th in the Cup Series standings with two top-five finishes and six top-10 finishes in 18 starts in 2024. His best result this season came at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, where he took the checkered flag in second place.
