Indiana native Chase Briscoe joining new NASCAR team beginning next season
HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. (WISH) — NASCAR Cup Series driver Chase Briscoe will join a new race team beginning next season.
Joe Gibbs Racing announced the Mitchell, Ind. native has signed a multi-year contract with the team to drive the No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry XSE.
The announcement did not come as a giant surprise after Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell let it slip within the last week that Briscoe was joining the team.
Briscoe has been racing for Stewart-Haas Racing in the NASCAR Cup Series since the 2021 season.
Last month, Stewart-Haas Racing announced it was ending operations at the end of this year.
“I’m excited for this opportunity with Joe Gibbs Racing and Bass Pro Shops,” Briscoe said in a news release. “From a competition standpoint, JGR is the place to be if you want to go win races week in and week out and to race for the championship every year. I am blessed that Johnny Morris and Bass Pro are on board to help us carry on the legacy of the 19 car. For me personally, being an avid outdoorsman, there’s a lot of pride in now being a part of the Bass Pro brand and I’m extremely grateful for this partnership. Getting to meet Johnny, I feel like I share a lot of the same values as him and Coach, and I’m ready to get to work and prove that they have made a great choice putting me in this car.”
Briscoe is currently 16th in the NASCAR Cup Series standings. He is coming off his best finish of the year this past Sunday, when he finished in second place in the USA Today 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
“We are extremely excited about the future of our 19 team with Chase (Briscoe) behind the wheel and the partnership with Johnny, J.P. and everyone at Bass Pro Shops,” said Joe Gibbs, owner of Joe Gibbs Racing, in the news release. “I talk about it often, but one of the great things about our sport is the relationships you have the opportunity to build around your teams and certainly we are just so thankful to have that with everyone at Bass Pro Shops. We obviously do a lot of research before selecting our drivers and through the process everything kept pointing us back to Chase. With James’ (Small) leadership, Chase behind the wheel, and the support from Bass Pro, and of course Toyota, we couldn’t be more excited about the future of our 19 team.”
Martin Truex, Jr. has raced the No. 19 car at Joe Gibbs Racing since the 2019 season. Earlier this month, he announced he was retiring from full-time Cup Series racing at the end of this season.
Truex, Jr.’s crew chief, James Small, will remain the crew chief of the No. 19 car when Briscoe takes over next year.
Briscoe has one career NASCAR Cup Series victory, finishing in first place at Phoenix in March of 2022.