Chase Briscoe hopes to be 'the new Kevin Harvick at Stewart-Haas'
Stewart-Haas Racing has a massive hole to fill following the retirement of Kevin Harvick at the conclusion of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season.
It’s true, replacing a future Hall of Famer with a Cup Series championship to his name is no easy task, yet one Chase Briscoe is hoping to accomplish. Briscoe, entering his fourth season with Stewart-Haas Racing, said Monday he wants to be the new Harvick of the team moving forward — the guy who sits near the front of the pack on a weekly basis.
“I am going to be the senior guy there now and that’s crazy to think only being three years in,” Briscoe said on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “But I’m going to be the elder statesman there, so it’ll be interesting for sure. Something I’m excited for, but at the same time, I think that leadership role comes from running up front week in and week out. Kevin was the leader of that place because he ran the best on the most consistent basis.
“For me, that’s the biggest thing is I wanna be the new Kevin Harvick at Stewart-Haas. I wanna be the guy that’s running up front week in and week out and when people think about Stewart-Haas, they think of the 14 car. That’s my whole goal going into this season and if we do that, then that leadership role just naturally gets placed upon you. But I think it’s hard to just say going into the season that you’re going to be the leader now at the place just because you’ve been there the longest. I think it comes from performance and that’s where we to back that up.”
Chase Briscoe, Stewart-Haas Racing looking more success in 2024
Briscoe, 29, seldom ran near the top of the pack this past season. One year removed from winning his first-career Cup Series race and finishing ninth in the points standings, Briscoe went winless in 2023, recording just eight top 10s and four top 5s. He finished 30th in the points standings. Briscoe’s campaign hit an insurmountable speed bump in May when NASCAR levied an L3-level penalty, the most severe punishment under the sanctioning body’s deterrence system, against his team. The penalty resulted in a loss of 120 driver and owner points and 25 NASCAR playoff points.
Stewart-Haas Racing struggled across the board in 2023, but will field a new-look cast in 2024. Briscoe and Ryan Preece (No. 41) will be joined by Josh Berry (No. 4) and Noah Gragson (No. 10). Berry is replacing Harvick, while Gragson is taking the spot vacated by Aric Almirola.