MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- Chase Briscoe has delivered multiple top-five finishes since making the offseason move to Joe Gibbs Racing. However, he is not yet at a spot where he feels truly comfortable in the No. 19 Toyota.
He is a few weeks away from reaching the point where he knows exactly what the Joe Gibbs Racing car needs compared to his former Ford Mustang.
"I mean, I feel like I can go win right now, but from like a 100%, this is my new normal, I feel like I'm probably three to four weeks away still from really just having kind of dialed in what I need every week and the feel of what the car should feel like," Briscoe said Saturday at Martinsville Speedway.
The Indiana native is no newcomer in the NASCAR Cup Series. He has competed full-time since 2021 and has celebrated two wins. He nearly made the Championship 4 in 2022.
The issue, as Briscoe has acknowledged this season, is switching from a Ford Mustang at Stewart-Haas Racing to a Toyota Camry at Joe Gibbs Racing. Gen 7 cars use the same parts, but they handle completely differently.
Briscoe has spent several weeks changing his driving style to better fit the Toyota Camry.
This season has showcased the difficulty in switching manufacturers and teams. Briscoe started the season by winning the pole and finishing fourth in the Daytona 500.
However, he finished no better than 14th in the next four races. This includes a 35th-place finish due to a multi-car crash at Phoenix Raceway.
Last weekend, Briscoe scored a fourth-place finish at Homestead-Miami Speedway. This tied his season-best finish and helped him gain more than 40 points, the benchmark that he and crew chief James Small had set weeks prior.
"We were able to do that last week, but we need to do it multiple weeks in a row now," Briscoe said.
What was the difference between a 17th-place finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and a fourth-place finish at Homestead-Miami Speedway? After all, both are intermediate tracks measuring 1.5 miles.
The answer is a rare testing opportunity with Goodyear ahead of Briscoe's trip to Florida. He was able to just log countless laps while working with his team away from the spotlight. This didn't take him to 100% comfort, but it put him on the path toward more consistency.
"Honestly, this Charlotte test helped me a lot, like, just probably shorten that gap more than what it would have been," Briscoe added.
"But, yeah, I feel like it's another three or four weeks from being fully dialed in to, 'Hey, this is what this thing should feel like every time we go to the race track.'"