By Luis Torres, Staff Writer/Photographer
Chase Briscoe was the epitome of overcoming adversity only for it not to be enough when it mattered most.
Flat tire after flat tire, Briscoe rallied back but when the dust settled, he finished 18th in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race, but third in the final points standings at Phoenix Raceway.
Briscoe entered the finale as the only newcomer in the Championship 4 battle with a win at Talladega two weeks ago giving him the opportunity to go for the title in his debut season at Joe Gibbs Racing.
Throughout the day, the Indiana racer had to overcome two right rear tires going down that kept him from leading the fray.
The first being on Lap 107 when smoke bellowed out of Briscoe’s No. 19 Toyota Camry XZE as he was running in sixth.
A driver in the #Championship4 with issues! @chasebriscoe limps his race car to pit road. pic.twitter.com/EY77mn2q4G
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) November 2, 2025
Saved by the bell, Shane van Gisbergen brought out the caution which prevented Briscoe from pitting under green flag conditions. Once pitting for fresh tires, he had his work cut out for which he was able to prove his JGR machine is fast by climbing up the running order.
At one point, Briscoe went from 32nd to inside the top-10 where he was able to finish seventh in Stage 2.
However, Briscoe wasn’t as lucky when his second flat tire occurred on Lap 217. Without a caution to bail him out, he brought his to pit road under green.
There's chaos in Phoenix! @KyleLarsonRacin and @chasebriscoe have issues! #Championship4 pic.twitter.com/0GgjdRpfjT
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) November 2, 2025
Several laps later, the caution came out for Carson Hocevar and it allowed Briscoe to run it back.
After the race, Briscoe explained the mentality of keep fighting with the mindset of anything can happen as long as you don’t give up. A situation he’s no stranger and used previous examples throughout his NASCAR career as cases as to why fighting back pans out.
“My whole career has been never give up, you never know what can happen. I feel like I race with that. I’ve had it multiple times throughout my career where you cannot give up in these races,” Briscoe commented.
“I go back to I want to say 2020 Homestead, I was seven laps down, came back to run third. This year Vegas, we were four laps down, came back to be on the lead lap. You just never know what can happen. One caution can change everything.
“Our car was obviously good enough, I could just go from the back right back to the front. I knew my car was good.”
By the time the next caution came out, Briscoe’s car was indeed good as he was in ninth.
When the leaders pitted, right side tires were only changed on the No. 19 machine which propelled him to the front of the field only to be squeezed by his teammate Denny Hamlin, who was the class of the field for nearly the entire afternoon.
With the laps winding down, Briscoe gradually became an afterthought. More so when the final caution of the season came out after fellow Championship 4 contender William Byron had a right front tire go down and hit the wall with three laps to go in regulation.
Byron is in the wall!
This may change everything! #Championship4 pic.twitter.com/4AgbfEa8V7
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) November 2, 2025
In one big swoop, the caution changed the complexity of the race, the season, and the state of the sport.
Briscoe, along with Hamlin, went for four tires as the race went into overtime. However, Kyle Larson, who had a flat tire after Briscoe had his down the second time, took two tires which proved to be the title-winning call.
Consequently, the four tires Briscoe had weren’t fresh as the flat tires ran him out a set of stickers and resorted to scuffs. Thus, Briscoe wasn’t able to amount a charge in the final two laps like Hamlin, who finished sixth to lose the title, and wound up barely inside the top-20.
“So excited to be at Joe Gibbs Racing, be able to compete for wins and compete for championships,” said Briscoe. “Hate that one of us didn’t get it. I thought we were both certainly capable. This wasn’t our day.”
Despite finishing a career-best third in points, the disappointment was evident. At the same time, Briscoe was pleased with the entire No. 19 team’s effort in what he described an eventful afternoon.
“We never gave up,” said Briscoe. “That’s been the story of my whole career, never giving up. You never know what can change at any point.”
“Felt like we were good enough. We came from the front to the back two or three different times. Had a really good Bass Pro Shops TRACKER Toyota. Wish we could have been on an even playing field at some point.”
When it’s all set and done, the 30-year-old ended 2025 with career-highs across the board with three wins, seven poles, 15 top-fives and 19 top-10 finishes.
Briscoe commented that he spoke with crew chief James Small and agreed that they can make it back into the title fight, whichever it may be going forward. Moreover, they’ve felt like their full potential hasn’t been reached at this time.
“It was big. Just in the sense of you always think you can do it. You never really know if you can,” Briscoe explained. “This year to prove to myself and certainly a lot of other people, too, that I feel like I belong here, right?
“Looking forward to obviously building on that. Really this year I felt like we gave the field half a season head start because we were learning so much throughout the process.
“We’ll start on an even playing field next year, see if we can be better.”
