DARLINGTON, S.C. -- The Round of 16 starts Sunday night with the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. This is a major turning point in the season for the playoff drivers, but it isn't leading to changes on the No. 19 team.
Chase Briscoe, crew chief James Small, and Joe Gibbs Racing aren't making any big pep talks to try to get just a little more out of the team.
"Not that I was a part of, and like I said, James and I have yet to talk about, 'Hey, the playoffs are starting this week, we need to focus on this for the next 10 weeks,'" Briscoe said Saturday morning at Darlington.
"It has literally been a normal week - I texted the group chat this morning and was like, '10 weeks of the best weeks we can do, and we have a legitimate shot at this thing,' but other than that, that is probably the only pep talk that we've had."
Playoff teams take different approaches to the Southern 500 and the nine other events that close out the NASCAR Cup Series season. Some try to get into "playoff mode" and eliminate mistakes that plagued them during the regular season. Other teams don't want to mess with the foundation that they built on.
23XI Racing driver Tyler Reddick falls into former category. He and the No. 45 team barely made the postseason after struggling during the regular season, and he said that the team couldn't do the same things from earlier in the season.
Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron, for comparison, is not messing with what worked after winning the regular-season championship. He and the No. 24 team aren't drastically messing with their procedures or schedules. In fact, Byron said he will still attend the U.S. Open amid the playoff run.
The No. 19 team and Briscoe fall into this latter category. They only improved as the season continued, so they don't have major things to address entering the Round of 16.
They showed speed early and then they built upon that foundation while making progress as a team.
This lack of pep talks shouldn't serve as an indicator that Briscoe and Joe Gibbs Racing are taking a lackadaisical attitude into the playoffs. Briscoe, in particular, knows how much is at stake as he pushes toward the end of his first season with the No. 19 team.
The milestones from earlier in his career are not good enough now that he drives for a tier-one Toyota team.
"It feels different because at SHR (Stewart-Haas Racing), we literally felt like we were on house money, and if you got eliminated from the Round of 16, at the end of the day, it was probably still a successful season that you made the playoffs," Briscoe said.
"Where here, if you just make the Round of 16, it is not a successful season - it is kind of a failure. That is really the part that feels different. At JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) it is expected that you make the playoffs, and we've just checked the first box of many that we need to accomplish this year. Where at SHR, if you could make the playoffs that was a successful year in itself."