The No. 19 team of Joe Gibbs Racing has believed in Chase Briscoe's ability to win races when he took over the car for the retiring Martin Truex Jr. Yet, a trip to Darlington Raceway in the fall shifted the team's opinion.
Videos by FanBuzz
This is when they realized that the Indiana native could soon win a Cup Series championship.
"That's when it really solidified it to me," crew chief James Small said ahead of Martinsville weekend. "He'd shown continuous improvement through the year and Pocono was a good step, in winning that race. And he started getting more and more competitive and racing better, looking like he belonged up front.
"And when we went to Darlington and dominated the way we did, that's when, for me personally, I really felt like, 'Hey, this kid actually, he can do it. He's one of the good ones right now.'"
The playoff opener at Darlington Raceway was not Briscoe's first crown jewel win. He won last season's Southern 500 while driving for Stewart-Haas Racing. He held off Kyle Busch and locked himself into the playoffs in what was the regular-season finale.
Briscoe led 29 laps in what was Stewart-Haas Racing's final win. This season, for comparison, he dominated. He started second in the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, and he led 309 of the 367 laps while sweeping the stages. He scored a race-high 60 points while automatically locking up a spot in the Round of 12.
"So that was very rewarding for us as a group to see, and we put a lot of effort into it, and I know Chase has as well," Small added.
Since scoring this crown jewel win, Briscoe has continued to put himself and his team into championship contention. He has finished no worse than 14th in eight playoff races, and he has finished fourth or better five times while winning twice.
His most recent win, which took place at Talladega Superspeedway, put him and the No. 19 team into the Championship 4. The only thing now standing between Briscoe's first championship is Phoenix Raceway, the track where he scored his first career win.
If he can win this championship — which would also be the first for the No. 19 team — it would cap off what has been a wildly successful season for this first-time partnership.
It would also show how far the team has come from the first few weeks of the season when Briscoe simply tried to adapt to a new team and a new driving style.
"It's been a learning experience for us," Small said. "Had a new engineer this year, Kyle Abrahims, he's done a fantastic job, and we're all learning together. And I feel like we had some glimpses in the first handful of races. At Homestead and Bristol, we ran well, and it wasn't until that Kansas 1 race where I think things really started coming together for us.
"And from that point, we've just continually been refining our process, what we do every week. I think Chase is more aware of how we want him to drive, and the things he just kind of leaves it up to us, to be honest, which is great. He's not trying to control anything, or tell us what to do, and he has a belief in what we do, and we have that in him."
