“I’m shocked, shocked, to find that gambling is going on in here!” – Captain Louis Renault in “Casablanca.”
You only get to announce something once.
Wait, scratch that.
You only get to announce something officially once.
Aaaaaand, if by some chance one of your employees happens to spill the beans a few days early, you have to make your official announcement count.
Or funny.
We’ll call this maxim the “Christopher Bell Rule” for short.
It’s not often a NASCAR driver accidentally confirms Silly Season news — and news that isn’t even related to themselves — in a press conference.
But Joe Gibbs Racing’s third-most-senior driver gave us this exact gift last Friday (June 21) in the New Hampshire Motor Speedway media center.
Who could possibly be replacing Martin Truex Jr. as the driver of the No. 19 Toyota in 2025?
Here’s Bell with the latest.
There was only one Chase in the NASCAR Cup Series garage looking for a ride next year.
After Tony Stewart decided to pull up stakes from Stewart-Haas Racing, that Chase was of the Briscoe Variety (™).
Thankfully, when JGR put out it would reveal Truex’s replacement on Tuesday (June 25), the team leaned into the can of worms Bell had opened.
Then came Tuesday.
JGR put a cherry on top of the whole deal by having the first person up to the microphone to bless the ceremony be Bell.
“Since I had the mistake of starting this on Friday, I guess I’ll get to finish it out today,” Bell said. “So we’ve got our team owner Joe Gibbs, crew chief on the No. 19 car James Small. It is my honor to finally announce the full name of our driver next year: Chase Briscoe in the No. 19 car.”
In most years, Silly Season is a pretty bland affair.
More often than not, there are very few surprises and a driver’s destination is known long before the official announcement.
Sure, there are exceptions. Like in 2022 when 23XI Racing’s surprise announcement that Tyler Reddick would join the team came disguised as a normal team media availability over Zoom.
So JGR’s approach to news that everybody knew ahead of time was a nice change of pace.
“I think it’s the worst kept secret in the sport for a while now,” Briscoe said Tuesday. “Christopher [Bell], I guess, just couldn’t hold it in any longer.”
Now, to Briscoe himself.
I never would have expected, just a couple years ago, that a prized Ford development driver like Briscoe — and one championed by Stewart — would ever not be driving for Ford in his NASCAR Cup career.
I also never expected SHR to go from four teams to none in the span of a year (one if you want to count Haas Factory Team).
But Briscoe replacing Truex in a Bass Pro Shops-sponsored car makes some marketing sense.
Of all the drivers in Cup garage, he’s one of the few I could picture shopping at Bass Pro himself.
It’s probably the facial hair.
However, he does have a fishing pond behind his home that he fishes in with his son nearly every day.
But Bass Pro founder Johnny Morris had other reasons after having “a chance to get acquainted” with the 29-year-old Briscoe.
“You guys know Chase’s record in racing as a young man,” Morris said. “What I didn’t realize is his upbringing and how he started off, kind of reminded me of a country music singer, Chris Jansen, that pursued his career and lived out of his car for a year out of Nashville, following his passion.
“I think how we started Bass Pro Shops out the back of my dad’s liquor store, and America is the land of opportunity.”
Morris added, “It’s very inspirational. Very grateful and excited today.”
When it comes to Briscoe’s racing resume, it also made some sense.
Of all the drivers potentially available for an open ride — specifically the four drivers at SHR — he’s the only one with a Cup win. Though that came two years ago at Phoenix Raceway.
After Sunday’s (June 23) race, where he finished second to race-winner Bell, Briscoe has two top fives and six top 10s through 18 races. He’s currently 16th in the standings, easily besting his three teammates.
Still, he hasn’t exactly lit the world on fire.
But neither did the guy he’s replacing when he first got to Cup.
If you forgot, Truex only won one Cup race in the first seven years of his career.
Now, Truex is a surefire NASCAR Hall of Famer.
“I think there’s pressure to perform coming over here in the first place, doesn’t matter who’s driving it, whether it’s Martin [Truex] or whoever,” Briscoe said. “This car is capable of winning.”
However, according to Gibbs himself, the first consideration when it comes to joining his organization is “character.”
“You’re always looking at what type of person you’re getting,” Gibbs said. “The thing that is different about our sport is that these guys have to represent companies and they represent us. … It’s never easy, and it’s complicated when we pick people or somebody like this to take over for us on our race team. Huge deal for us.”
Also, it didn’t hurt that Briscoe and Bell are old friends.
Once upon a time, they were couch- and inflatable mattress-surfing roommates in the Charlotte area, in the days before their racing careers took off.
“I think knowing Christopher was able to help me a little bit with Chase,” Gibbs said.
If you’re gonna have someone spill the beans about you, why not have it be the guy who vouched for you?
About the author
Daniel McFadin is a 10-year veteran of the NASCAR media corp. He wrote for NBC Sports from 2015 to October 2020. He currently works full time for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and is lead reporter and an editor for Frontstretch. He is also host of the NASCAR podcast "Dropping the Hammer with Daniel McFadin" presented by Democrat-Gazette.
You can email him at danielmcfadin@gmail.com.
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I hope he doesn’t turn into a Denny Hamlin. The atmosphere at Reverend Joe’s tends to have that defect on drivers. If you get my drift!