Chase Briscoe may follow a strict diet and workout plan now that he drives for Joe Gibbs Racing, but you had better believe that he is going to cut loose during the offseason if he wins his first Cup Series championship.
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By golly, he is going to kick back and have some ice cream as part of the celebration.
"I mean, I feel like I deserve it, if I can do that (win the championship)," Briscoe told FanBuzz at Bristol Motor Speedway. "I mean, I feel like, yeah, you can have a splurge day for sure, I feel like, at that point, maybe a splurge week."
This could seem like an odd way for a driver to celebrate a championship, but to fully understand this, you have to look at how Briscoe's life has significantly changed since moving to Joe Gibbs Racing.
The Indiana native has openly discussed his picky eating habits many times over the years. He previously told The Athletic's Jeff Gluck that he'd never eaten peanut butter, sweet pickles, or mayonnaise.
He doesn't eat hot dogs, but he went to Panda Express during a Daytona 500 rain delay in 2021. He has shied away from fruits and vegetables for much of his life.
Briscoe also spent time talking to this author at Circuit of the Americas earlier this season about trips through the Arby's drive-thru in Mitchell, Indiana.
The situation changed when Briscoe moved to Joe Gibbs Racing. He joined forces with crew chief James Small, who convinced the Indiana native to make some major changes to his lifestyle.
"James is super into fitness," Briscoe explained during Daytona 500 Media Day. "Him and his wife both are like, I mean like diehard, like as diehard as you can get about eating right, working out.
"So when I came over to (Joe Gibbs Racing), James was like, 'So what do you do?' That's just a big part of his life. So he wanted to know kind of how I approach it.
"And I was like, 'Well, truthfully I don't ever eat fruits and vegetables. I eat all fried food, and I don't work out.' So he's like, 'Well, we need to change that.'"
Photo credit: Nigel Kinrade Photography
As Small apparently explained, he would put in 100% effort as a crew chief. He wanted to know that Briscoe would buy in 100% while trying to get the No. 19 team into championship contention.
Changing the diet and adding in some workouts were two ways to show this dedication.
"It was one of the first conversations," Briscoe said. "Yeah. I think me and James went to lunch and like, he ordered like this super healthy bowl and like I ordered all this fried stuff and he's like, 'That's going to change.'"
Toyota Gazoo Racing North America has a dedicated Performance Center where drivers can show up, take part in training sessions, and work with a nutritionist. However, attendance is not mandatory for drivers in the lineup. They do not necessarily have a ton of accountability.
Small did not send Briscoe to the Toyota Performance Center. Instead, his wife began training the new driver of the No. 19 Toyota. She began teaching Briscoe about nutrition, which helped him lose 10 pounds before the season even started.
"It's been good for me, truthfully, to like have his wife do it because it holds me way more accountable because if I don't do it, James instantly knows," Briscoe said in February.
"Where if it was like the team — or TRD even has the whole driver program — I could probably get away with not going and he would never know. With his wife doing it, it holds me extremely accountable."
This accountability has remained throughout Briscoe's first season with Joe Gibbs Racing, even as he and wife Marissa have juggled the racing schedule with raising three young children.
The partnership with Small and the No. 19 team has also paid dividends. They have celebrated six pole wins and two race wins while reaching the second round of the playoffs. Briscoe is now 12 points above the cutline heading to Kansas Speedway, a track where he finished fourth in the spring.
The Indiana native is very much in contention to advance to the Round of 8. If he achieves this goal for the second time in his Cup Series career — and the first with Joe Gibbs Racing — he will move one step closer to a championship and his splurge day.
