Chase Briscoe says “stress is off” at Martinsville race with guaranteed Championship 4 spot

Chase Briscoe outlined his plans for Martinsville on the latest episode of Dale Jr. Download. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver explained why he's still focused on winning despite a guaranteed championship four spot.

Briscoe and Denny Hamlin are through to the finale race after consecutive wins in the Round of 8. With two spots up for grabs in the final elimination race at Martinsville, a win for either Briscoe or Hamlin automatically locks in Christopher Bell as well. The No.20 driver is currently third in the playoff standings with a comfortable margin of 37 points above the cutline.

Briscoe had a decent outing in the spring Martinsville race. He finished ninth, while Hamlin and Bell finished first and second, respectively. His best result at the track is a fourth-place finish back in October 2023.

Reflecting upon the race ahead, Briscoe said,

"Our focus is trying to go there and win. You know, even tomorrow, I'm still going to go run sim for Martinsville, just trying to be as best we can this weekend." [54:11 onwards] "You know, the stress is off in a sense of the playoffs, but you know, you don't want to go to Martinsville and run terrible and run 28th and then carry that into Phoenix. You want to go there and have a good run and kind of carry that momentum," he added.

Notably, Martinsville is Chase Briscoe's second-best track in terms of average finish. With two top-5s and six top-10s across seven races, he records an average of 8.7.

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Chase Briscoe shares candid take on racing at Phoenix

Chase Briscoe shared a not-so-favourable take of Phoenix Raceway. The No.19 driver admitted that he used to be 'so bad' at the dog leg oval, which forced him to grind it out and get better.

"Phoenix is a weird one for me because it was always one of my three worst tracks in truth, my least favorite tracks to go to," he said, "In 2022...I went there and won the cup race and got my first cup win there. And kind of from that moment on, I started to like it obviously," he said via aforementioned source. [54:51 onwards]

Chase Briscoe had a weekend to forget during the spring Phoenix race. He got caught up in a multi-car wreck near 15th position. He retired from the race on lap 98 of the 312-lap event.

The same race witnessed a top-row lockout by JGR drivers Denny Hamlin and Christopher Bell, where the latter won his third consecutive race of the 2025 season.

Denny Hamlin is the only JGR driver who hasn't won a Phoenix race in the Next Gen Era. However, this year is the first time since 2021 that he has qualified for the top-four as well.

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Edited by Vignesh Kanna