Chase Briscoe Reveals Ugly Truth About Kevin Harvick and Stewart-Haas Racing

Chase Brisco is the longest tenure driver at Stuart Hof racing in his fourth season with the fourar organization I had a chance to visit with a 29-year-old driver before the March 24th race at Circuit of the Americas and we talked about a variety of topics including the difference between this year and last year the pilot of the number 14 car had plenty to say on the subject and didn't sugarcoat what he believes is the reason for the organization's improved performance and improved morale in 2024 last week we had the tire issues at Bristol right yeah would the possibility of using multiple compounds like F1 and indie car have helped or changed that whole dynamic if you guys have multiple compounds available to you for that race and then the whole off throttle and horsepower debate yeah could that conceivably be an option where you guys have multiple compounds to choose from because then everybody could have varying strategies yeah I mean it would definitely the complexity of the race I would think you know just having different you know options could change a lot of different things I think it would be very dependent on kind of what good year would bring as far as how drastic you know one is to the other but I definitely think it would change a lot of different things throughout the race from a strategy standpoint you know especially at a place where tires fall off a lot so yeah it would be interesting to see them do that I know they tried to do at the Allstar race a couple years ago and it didn't end up being kind of what I think they thought it was going to be but I uh I wouldn't be opposed to trying it for sure just to kind of see what happens yeah well they I looked it up it was 2017 and what they did was they they said they ran back-to-back runs and it worked great but then the track temperature changed for the actual race and they were getting three to four t0 of a second difference between the different compounds but when the race started it tightened up yeah so it's you know you just can't really tell I guess so steuart house has receiv received a lot of criticism lately for the success or lack thereof but you have two top 10 in the first five races no gron has two top 10 the most he's ever had in his career so what does that say what can fans I know it's just five races but what can fans take from the first five races and the results of you two guys specifically and I know Josh got a 12th Place last week what can they take from the start yeah I would say that definitely you know internally the place has been way different I would say from especially last year just everybody's I think way more excited and knows that we justes have something different than we've ever had before uh which is exciting but then even on the racetrack I think you can just look at the results and see they've been way better you know last year I bet we didn't qualify inside the top 10 at any track other than Martinsville or Daytona Talladega and this year the only race we haven't qualified in the top 10's been Daytona so that just shows from a speed standpoint we've had speed um you know finish wise we we've had two top 10s our other finishes have kind of been right right outside the top 10 and you know even saw stat the other day I think average running position all year long we're like seventh or eighth so we've just been way better than what we were at all last year so I do think that it's encouraging to kind of see where we've been we are still only five races in we have 31 to go but um I would say we've been way more competitive this year on a consistent basis than we ever were last year consistently already so that's exciting I do see kind of the riding on the wall finally of like turning the corner um we still have a long way to go to get back to kind of what Stewart Hof is known for from a uh you know winning pretty much weekly and winning championships but we're finally competitive against and running inside the top 10 again which you can't win races before you start running the top 10 so we're we're slowly getting there baby step wise and um just going to take time but I will say going into the season I thought it would take us a little bit longer to kind of hit our stride and start start kind of being consistent and uh it's been nice that we' we've already kind of found that consistency part you mentioned it was it's different so how how so I mean have you taken on more of a leadership role kind of explain to me the difference between this year I mean obviously Kevin's gone but and Eric's gone but what so what is the dynamic that's made it different yeah I would just say honestly just the shop morale is different you know when we had Kevin there you know if uh Hall of Famer is not winning and running up front like you instantly know that just something is not right so over the offseason I think it would just finally addressed like hey we we have serious issues that we need to try to handle and you know I you obviously saw that with Tony coming out publicly and saying stuff and then just internally we've changed a lot of our processes and things that we do at the shop and just trying to make things more structured and organized uh and honestly just work more as a a cohesive unit where in the past it was kind of four separate teams doing their own thing so um we still have ways to go to kind of get that full Buy in I feel like um but I I feel like right now the teams definitely have worked more together now than anytime that I've been at Stewart hos so I do feel like that's some of the the reasoning you've kind of seen that and then just the dynamic of the place is kind of different you know at least from the driver side you know when I came into the cup series I was just super quiet and like at our competition meetings you know Kevin and Eric had been in the sport 10 15 years and they were going to steer the ship of the place where now I feel like I definitely can use my voice and and kind of be more of a leader and um you know I feel more confident in that too so it's been nice to kind of have that luxury now of just feeling like I can kind of speak my own opinion and if I'm passionate about something you know make it aware that I'm passionate about it so um you know you put all that together and you have four guys now that are relatively uh you know just have a lot to prove we only have one win between the four of us so we all are super hungry to go out there and prove what we can do and um I just think all of our personalities Drive pretty well together and um just the shop attitude's different you know all four of us are at the shop a ton we in the past you know you didn't really see the drivers there too much um where Brian and Noah are practically there every single day and then you know Josh and I are there three three days a week typically so we just are there a lot and around the guys a lot in that morale I feel like as as show so how do you convey how difficult it is to drive a race car 190 mph around other people driving a race car 100 90 mph compared to someone who can understand going to a batting cage and hitting a 90 mph fast ball you can't go drive a car so how how do you compare and convey the challenges of being a cup driver yeah that's that's the ultimate question right if we do the answer to that I feel like we could hook everybody into what we're doing it is hard because you know our sport is probably the the only professional sport where you really can't do what the other people do right like you can't go to a bat and cage or you can't go get a basketball and go shoot threes and you can't get a football and throw like you it's hard to get in a race car and do that so you know I feel like the the riding experiences that they have are a good kind of Tipping Point but even that's like 40% of what we go through and what we're experiencing so it is really hard and that's the one thing I wish that our sport could somehow figure out a way I don't know what that way is cuz I think it's impossible to to get that feeling unless you're in there with us and um you know I think NASCAR's doing a good job of you know putting onboard cameras in every car and things like that so you can kind of go and see what the drivers are going through the whole race and um but it's hard to physically kind of experience what we go through and um yeah I would say the closest thing you could do is you know go to I guess your local go-kart track right or Ral go-kart track and go run laps and just imagine trying to to probably run 15 seconds faster and that's what we're probably going to do uh in a sport that the popular saying is if you ain't first you're last so you've won a race but you've got a bunch of races where you haven't most people 95% of the time you're not going to win a race so how do you deal with losing you're a loser 95% how do you process that because other sports there's a winner and a loser in you know stick and ball Sports so how do you process that knowing that you're going to lose a lot yeah I think you just kind of know that the deal get into right like as a race car driver the the greatest race car driver in the world is probably at at best a 80 something perent lose rate so um yeah you just get used to it and I think you know there's wins not just when you go to Victory Lane like there's days where you might have a 20th Place car and if you run 10th with it like that that is a win that day so I think there's a lot of ways to measure winds and racing um you know because it is different than stick and ball Sports you know stick and ball Sports you know the variables are always the same the players are the only thing that matter where for us there's so many different variables that affect your day so there's a lot of things that you can do as a driver um you know and just things that are out of your control that you can say Hey you know today was a win even if we finish 15th or fourth or whatever may be so uh yeah I think you just kind of get loose used to losing honestly early in your career because you do lose way more than you win and uh you just kind of know that going into it what's the most bizarre thing you've seen on the race track most bizarre thing um I would say honestly last week at Bristol was one of the craziest like just being a part of that um but I I would say one of the craziest things was probably here at Kota the first year we raced in the monsoon was just one of the craziest things I've ever experienced I don't know about seeing but I mean you couldn't really see anything that's what made it so crazy I remember going out of back straightaway and we're probably running I don't know 180 185 mph in the rain and and I mean me and you were sitting what 3 ft part and I wouldn't have even seen you if you were sitting on the racetrack so I remember going down the long straight away and I would literally look out the window net because all I could do is look out the left side I would just follow the guard rail all the way down the straightway running wide open and I remember I passed a car that was stopped and it just absolutely freaked me out that I mean I could have hit him wide open and never even known it so um that's probably one of the Wilder things I've experienced in the race car uh I don't know about seeing because you definitely couldn't see much well Kevin Harvick said that's the scaredest he's ever been mixar yeah it was pretty terrifying uh what is your favorite NASCAR rivalry and why in the history of the sport yeah so for me I would say I don't even know this was really a true rivalry but Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon uh like in my household that was like the big rivalry um you know it was two Sprint Car Guys I was a die Tony fan my grandma was a big Jeff Gordon fan so like every Sunday when I would get to her house we would always go over there on Sunday nights and it was always like rubbing it in each other's face who who ran better that day or who was going to run better that night uh so for me that was like the big rivalry I always remember and I feel like there was a little bit of a rivalry there because they both wanted to be like that guy Tony was kind of the second coming of Jeff right so yeah I don't know if there was really ever a real rivalry on the racetrack but for me that's a rivalry I always feel like was was there kind of behind the scenes so do you find enjoyment in like current rivalries when you're not involved because I've talked to other drivers and that's part of the sport so yeah I think so I feel like we all like drama right like there's a a reason reality TV and stuff exists and why it's so popular so yeah I think we're all naturally drawn to drama and um yeah it's always nice when it's not you involved in it right so uh yeah I I enjoy it I think it helps our sport too anytime we can have that um it is fun to to see the rivalries and watch them play out like especially when one guy gets kind of the one up onone you're excited for the next week to see if the other guy gets it back so yeah I'd say I enjoy watching it okay so last question is Steve Phelps has mentioned a couple times drivers leaning into conflict and leaning into rivalries so you have the option to pick two drivers you you can include yourself but who would make the best rivalry in NASCAR that would be appealing to not just the Nascar fan base but would get attention but it would be something that fans get fans talking um I would say honestly probably the biggest one that would help our sport would be probably Denny and lson I feel like that would be just two fan bases that are huge fan bases um and are very passionate fanan bases and I feel like you have to have Denny in there because he's just such a polarizing player right now in our Sport and then you know you look at Larson he's probably one of the most popular drivers so maybe a Larsson and Denny or a Ryan blay and Denny uh I just feel like that would be really good for our sport if we had that

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Keywords: NASCAR, NASCAR cup series, racing, car racing, racing community, beating and banging, race car, racing channel, gearhead, sports, motorsports, auto racing, NASCAR Truck Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series, Truck Series, Cup Series, Xfinity Series, Stock Car Racing, Stock Car, race day, Chase Briscoe Reveals Ugly Truth About Kevin Harvick and Stewart-Haas Racing, Chase Briscoe, Kevin Harvick, Stewart-Haas Racing, Kevin Harvick and Stewart-Haas Racing, motorsport, motor sports

Id: JVPGjKuou4M

Length: 12min 14sec (734 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 28 2024