Isn’t it ironic? Indiana’s own Chase Briscoe is set to drive Tony Stewart’s iconic #14 one final time during the 30th anniversary of the Brickyard 400. This will also mark Briscoe’s debut on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s oval in NASCAR’s Next-Gen car—a historic moment in itself.

Additionally, it will be his last shot at making the playoffs by clinching a win on both his and Smoke’s sacred home track. As this dramatic chapter unfolds, the former Cup winner is more determined than ever to turn the brickyard into his personal backyard, aiming to deliver a fitting farewell to his legendary team owner.

With the goal of giving Tony Stewart a memorable farewell

The last time NASCAR was at Indy, they raced on its 2.469-mile road course layout—the 2023 Verizon 200 at the Brickyard. Michael McDowell of Front Row Motorsports won this race. Briscoe, on the other hand, had finished in the 6th position. This outing matched the Hoosier’s previous best record of road course finishes—a couple of P6 positions in 2021, first at COTA and then at Sonoma. Nevertheless, Brickyard P6 would not be enough to push Briscoe past the playoff bubble in 2023.

This year, Chase Briscoe returned to the #14 car with renewed enthusiasm. However, Stewart-Haas Racing’s closure in May left the NASCAR community stunned, and Briscoe and his teammates scrambled for 2025 Cup Series seats. Three and a half years after taking over Clint Bowyer’s seat in the iconic #14—formerly driven to Brickyard 400 victories by Tony Stewart—Briscoe faced uncertainty about his NASCAR future.

Ironically, it was his friend Christopher Bell who announced that Briscoe would join Joe Gibbs Racing in 2025, once Martin Truex Jr. retires. Despite Bell’s timing causing some chuckles, Briscoe is set to drive the #19 Toyota, finding his new NASCAR home.

But before any of that transpires, he has five races remaining to confirm a playoff spot. Although Richmond, Michigan, Daytona, and Darlington offer Briscoe an even playing field regardless, his best chance at a race win will no doubt be at the 100+-year-old racetrack, only an hour and a half away from his hometown of Mitchell, Indiana. Tony Stewart’s own stomping grounds in Columbus lie only about another hour and a half eastward. This closeness in proximity and the chance to give his team owner one final hurrah certainly have Briscoe “excited,” to say the least, according to Catchfence.com.

“Especially with how this year’s played out, with it being the last year for SHR… I was talking to Tony and told him it was pretty special that I’m going to get to run at least one Brickyard 400 in the #14 car. That means a lot to me personally, and even Tony—I don’t think it had hit him yet that it was going to be his last time as a car owner at Indy, at least for the time being.” – said Chase Briscoe.

Speaking of the Brickyard 400’s return, he also added, “It’s cool that we’re going back to the oval, with the history of that race. And as a Hoosier myself, I feel that there’s a little more emphasis on it… It’s obviously a Crown Jewel for all of us, but when you grow up in Indiana—and we’ve seen Tony Stewarts and Ryan Newmans and how much different it is for those guys—it’s the same for me.”

Indeed, it has been the same for Stewart-Haas Racing too since 2019, when Kevin Harvick won the Brickyard 400, then went on to win it another time in 2020 until NASCAR decided to switch things up with the Indy Road Course in 2021. And 30 years to its inception date, Chase Briscoe looks certain to make his Hoosier team owner proud. But as a native of the Hoosier State himself, Briscoe explained to Speedway Digest exactly what it means to cross the ‘yard of bricks’ first at the Brickyard.

Unveiling the history of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with Chase Briscoe

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Indianapolis Motor Speedway broke ground in the year 1909. Its first event ever held was a helium gas-filled balloon competition. The Brickyard’s inaugural motorsports event was seven motorcycle races sanctioned by the Federation of American Motorcyclists. For almost a century, IMS belonged primarily to the IndyCar series, both of which are now under the ownership of NASCAR team owner and businessman Roger Penske.

That was until 1994, when a young, fresh-faced Jeff Gordon won the first iteration of the Brickyard 400. The Rainbow Warrior is also the winningest driver at the racetrack for NASCAR with 5 victories, and Rick Hendrick is set to honor that. This weekend, 7x champion Jimmie Johnson will also aim to equal that record with his own fifth win at the Brickyard in one of his part-time starts in the #84 for his race team, Legacy Motor Club, and joining him as a spotter is his father. No puns intended, but such is the legacy of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

As Chase Briscoe told Speedway Digest, “Just when you look at the people who have won there, it’s all icons in motorsports and just people you kind of look up to, the AJ Foyts, the Parnellis, the Unsers, and Andrettis, it’s just the names of the people who have gotten to run on a racetrack that’s been around for more than 100 years and had the history and significance that it has in the motorsports community is always special.”

Speaking as an Indiana native, Briscoe continues with an interesting perspective. “Then, when you grow up in Indiana, it’s just normal. I think you take for granted that you have IMS there in your backyard. it’s something you don’t realize how big of a thing it is until you finally go there and see it in person and realize what it means to motorsports,” he detailed his outlook on the racetrack.

Regardless, “It’s certainly special to have probably the most iconic racetrack in the world as my home track,” was how he concluded his true feelings to Speedway Digest. Will this optimism spur on an emphatic victory on Sunday? That is hardly what one could predict. But as of Friday, Chase Briscoe will also reconnect with his 410 Sprint Car roots with an appearance at the Bloomingdale Speedway, sixty miles south of IMS.

Can these extra hours of racing benefit the #14 team when the main event hits the TV screens at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.