It’s official: Chase Briscoe is headed to Joe Gibbs Racing in 2025.
Days after Christopher Bell accidentally mentioned Briscoe as his new teammate, the team confirmed that the 30-year-old would replace the retiring Martin Truex Jr. in the No. 19 car next season. Briscoe’s current team, Stewart-Haas Racing, will close at the end of the season.
Briscoe’s announcement comes less than two weeks after Truex said he would end his full-time driving career after the 2024 season. Truex made the decision to retire after contemplating retirement during each of the two seasons. previous.
Briscoe will take over a top-three Cup team in 2025. Coincidentally, Tuesday’s announcement comes two days after Briscoe finished second to Bell at New Hampshire.
Briscoe is currently 16th in the points standings with six top-10 finishes through the first half of the season. He is SHR’s top driver in points and the only one of the team’s four drivers to have won a Cup race.
That victory came in March 2022, when Briscoe won in Phoenix. The victory qualified him for the playoffs and he finished ninth in the standings, with six top-five and 10 top-10 finishes. His average finish of 17th that season is one place completely lower than his average finish in 2024.
Last season was a tough slog for Briscoe and all of Stewart-Haas, except Kevin Harvick. Briscoe finished 30th in the standings thanks to a huge points penalty for car modifications early in the season and had just three top-10 finishes in the final 16 races of the year.
JGR also announced that current Truex crew chief James Small will remain as Briscoe’s crew chief in 2025. Small has been Truex’s crew chief since the start of the 2020 season following Cole Pearn’s departure from NASCAR. Truex and Pearn were the best driver and crew chief combination in NASCAR at Furniture Row Racing and Joe Gibbs Racing in the late 2010s. Truex has eight wins in 163 races with Small as crew chief and was second in the standings. of points in 2021.