For a young Hoosier, what could be greater than the chance to kiss the bricks? Chase Briscoe hasn’t made it happen, but he knows just how important it is. Remember Tony Stewart’s moment at the Brickyard 400 two decades ago? While most focused on Smoke’s celebrations, climbing the front stretch fence with his crew and saluting his family, there was one little boy who saw his fellow Hoosier making the dream come true. Considering such an important event, wouldn’t winning it be better than one of the biggest NASCAR races? Well, Chase Briscoe certainly thinks so!
Briscoe was given a loaded hypothetical question after capturing the pole position for this year’s Brickyard 400: Would he want to win this race once or a Cup title once? He instinctively acknowledged that although a championship would still be the better option, the Brickyard is a close second, so close that he would rank it higher than the Daytona 500. “I’d probably have to pick the title,” he told Frontstretch, “but outside of winning a championship, I can’t think of anything I would be more excited to win than this race… I’d put this over the Daytona 500.”
The Daytona 500 continues to be the ultimate prize for the majority of drivers in the garage. It is NASCAR’s most visible moment and the one occasion that even casual fans look forward to. However, the Brickyard means something else to Briscoe. He grew up watching the sport’s legends charge into Turn 1 from the stands with his family. In the same corner, he will now be leading the field.
“I would put this over the Daytona 500 or any other race on the schedule.”@chasebriscoe shared the importance of the Brickyard 400 to him after winning the pole for Sunday’s race at Indianapolis.
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— Frontstretch (@Frontstretch) July 27, 2025
After a nearly faultless qualifying effort, that opportunity presented itself. With a lap time of 49.189 seconds in the qualifying, Briscoe was the fastest driver. He supported it with a 49.136-second lap at 183.165 mph in the final round, holding off a charging Erik Jones and edging out Bubba Wallace. More significantly, it was his first pole in Indianapolis and his sixth of the season. Performance-wise, the lap was aggressive without being ragged, clean, and precise, a clear sign that the driver and the vehicle are in sync.
The historical precedent added to the performance’s significance. Drivers starting in the first two rows have won 21 of the 30 Brickyard 400s that have been held on the oval. In response to Briscoe’s input, Joe Gibbs Racing set up the car with an emphasis on straight-line speed and turn exit stability, particularly into Turn 2 and the lengthy backstretch. According to crew chief Chris Gayle, Briscoe’s lap was “the cleanest we’ve strung together all year.”
His peers are taking note. “Chase is showing week in and week out that he belongs up front,” said Tyler Reddick. “It’s not just a hot streak, it’s real pace.” Bubba Wallace called him “hungry and dangerous when he’s got track position,” adding that Indy could suit his style more than people realize.
Even Briscoe knows he’s standing at the edge of something incredible. “It’d definitely be really, really special. I actually texted Tony this week about that. We went to the new museum and they had that 2005 car over there, and I took a picture of it. I sent it to him. I said, ‘hopefully another Hoosier can win 20 years later.’ So, yeah, it would be super, super special. I mean, there’d be nothing like it for me, just from a personal standpoint, than to win this race… I was driving home and just kind of running laps through my head, and, yeah, I’ve never really thought about winning a race before. It was just kind of like imagining what it would be like to win here and do it in the Brickyard 400 and I’ve watched Tony’s race the night before just randomly on YouTube, and just watching his celebration, everything. I just kind of put myself in that moment just as an Indiana guy, and it’s just different. I don’t know how to explain. I just thought about it. I mean, there’s a quick 20-second thought, but just got goosebumps literally as I was driving down the road thinking about it.”
While Briscoe gears up for the race, let’s see what he has to say about his teammate.
Briscoe Calls Hamlin the Harvick of Joe Gibbs Racing
Chase Briscoe made a clear distinction between the past and present on the eve of the 2025 Brickyard 400, associating Denny Hamlin’s position at Joe Gibbs Racing with that of Kevin Harvick in his prime at Stewart-Haas.
“If you look at the success at JGR, Denny is a massive part of it,” Briscoe said during Friday’s media availability at Indianapolis. “He’s got 59 career wins, and all 59 have been at JGR. When you think about a guy of Denny’s caliber, he’s going to be a first-ballot Hall of Famer.”
While the official win total is 58, Briscoe’s general point that no driver has given Joe Gibbs Racing more consistent, excellent performance than Hamlin is true. Since 2019, he has averaged over four victories per season and has continued to play at a championship level far into his 40s, making him the organization’s all-time win leader. With four victories and eleven top-five finishes from 21 races in 2025, Hamlin is now fourth in the Cup Series standings and statistically on par with his best seasons to date.
The learning curve at Gibbs has been tough, but being close to Hamlin has significantly accelerated it, according to Briscoe, who is currently in his first year of driving the No. 19 car that was previously driven by Martin Truex Jr. “It has been really interesting and eye-opening to be able to be teammates with Denny and kind of be inside the walls and see how he approaches every single week of the season.”
Hamlin, who is frequently regarded as both a culture creator and a motivator at JGR, has assumed a leadership position like to the one Harvick held at SHR at the height of the team’s success. Younger teammates benefited from Harvick’s presence, which also technically steadied the program. According to all internal accounts, Hamlin is maintaining his driving prowess while juggling team ownership at 23XI Racing. Briscoe’s conclusion is unambiguous: Hamlin is not only winning races, but he is also establishing the benchmark for what consistent excellence in contemporary NASCAR looks like.
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