Tony Stewart sent Chase Briscoe a message before Championship race at Phoenix

Tony Stewart sent a message of encouragement to Chase Briscoe before the NASCAR Championship race at Phoenix Raceway. It was then aired by NBC to Chase Briscoe.

Tony Stewart and Chase Briscoe's bond goes back years. Both are from Indiana (Stewart from Columbus and Briscoe from Mitchell), and both have raced for the Hoosier State.

Stewart has won three Cup Series championships (2002, 2005, 2011) and one as a team owner in 2014 with Kevin Harvick. Briscoe drove for Stewart-Haas Racing from 2021 to 2024 before moving to Joe Gibbs Racing this season.

The message was also shared on X by journalist Steven Taranto. The three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion told Briscoe,

“Go do some of that driver shit. Let’s get it done.”

This wasn’t the first time Stewart had reached out to Briscoe that week. According to Forbes reporter Bruce Martin, Tony Stewart texted Briscoe earlier and asked him to give him a call before Phoenix. Briscoe, now driving for Joe Gibbs Racing, said he called him back right away and they talked for 20 minutes.

“The only person I have talked to is Tony Stewart and I talked to him last night,” Briscoe said before the Martinsville race. “When your hero reaches out wanting to give you advice, you certainly call him back.”

Briscoe was one of four drivers racing for the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Championship. His win at Talladega’s YellaWood 500 on October 19 locked him into the Championship 4, joining teammate Denny Hamlin.

Now the championship contention has come to an end, and Briscoe ended the race with an 18th-place finish. Kyle Larson won the 2025 NASCAR Championship.

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Tony Stewart’s old warning about aero problems still rings true

Back in May 2002, Tony Stewart won at Richmond Raceway but made news for his blunt comments afterward. He warned NASCAR that cars were becoming too “aero-dependent,” making it harder for drivers to pass.

Stewart said that if the issue wasn’t fixed, things would “get worse before it gets better.” More than 20 years later, his prediction has come true. After his 2002 win, Stewart explained,

“We’ve got a big problem starting here with aerodynamics and how aero-dependent these cars are getting,” Tony Stewart said, as quoted by Nascarman on X. “Any disturbance in the air in front of you directly affects how your car drives,” he added.

Today, the same problem exists with the Next Gen car. Drivers like Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Petty have spoken up about it this season. Earnhardt said the new cars feel more like IMSA sports cars, while Petty argued NASCAR hasn’t raced true stock cars since 1958.

The issue was most obvious at Bristol, where almost no tire wear meant lap times stayed too close. Kyle Larson led 411 of 500 laps, showing just how hard it was to pass.

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Edited by Tushhita Barua