The offseason is a time when NASCAR drivers can scale back their schedules a bit and get some much-needed rest before heading back to Daytona. This is not the case for Chase Briscoe, who faces a jam-packed schedule as he prepares for his first season at Joe Gibbs Racing.
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Not that he is complaining.
"Something I even told my wife already is, 'Look, December, January, I'm going to be at the shop a lot just trying to get that communication with (the No. 19 team) and get that relationship going with them,'" Briscoe said at the NASCAR Awards. "Because I just feel like it goes such a long way."
This schedule already included extensive time in the simulator as Briscoe has built his chemistry with crew chief James Small. The two spent time on the phone in the months following the announcement that Briscoe would take over the No. 19 Toyota in 2025, but all of their discussions were theoretical.
Putting the time in the simulator helped them build a better foundation for the future.
"We're literally going four days in a row, I think 9-5," Briscoe said about his offseason schedule. "Those are gonna be four days where we're gonna really get to learn each other a lot and understand the lingo.
"And my style of driving might be completely opposite of Martin (Truex Jr.'s). We feel like talking that they're pretty similar — like the things Martin looks for are a lot of the same things I look for. But how we get there could be totally different."
Building on this offseason collaboration will be key for both Briscoe and Small considering what is at stake. Sure, they each have celebrated wins in the Cup Series — Briscoe has two wins as a driver while Small has eight as a crew chief — but these were under different circumstances.
Small's wins were with Martin Truex Jr., a former champion and a future Hall of Fame member. Truex had 26 wins and a title on his resume before he began working with Small.
Briscoe, for comparison, won two races in four seasons with Stewart-Haas Racing's Cup program. However, these were anomalies for a team on the downswing. This was not the same Stewart-Haas Racin that regularly contended for championships.
Now Briscoe will take over a car capable of winning numerous races at another championship-winning organization, which puts extra pressure on him to perform.
"It's going to be interesting just trying to understand the differences, I would say, of how intense JGR is," Briscoe said. "At SHR, if we ran eighth, that was a good weekend. Like we had a good weekend. Where at JGR, it's just the expectation is way different. It's like, 'Well, if we ran eighth, why did we run eighth today?'
"Like, it's just a totally different vibe and atmosphere. So from that standpoint, there's going to be a lot, I think, for me to learn at the beginning of the season and just understanding honestly, even just the things that go into what makes them as successful as they are."
