“We had one bullet left in the chamber — and that bullet hit.” Chase Briscoe dedicated his much-needed win to an emotional group of Stewart-Haas Racing employees. Knowing they would disperse in just a few months, clinching the Darlington glory was certainly redeeming. Briscoe broke a long two-year winless streak for both himself and his team. However, the journey is not yet over, as Denny Hamlin claims.

The SHR team was at the pinnacle of success on the Cup Series level. On Sunday night, Briscoe brought back some of that flavor and set the pace to die out in glory. And Hamlin is ardently rooting for SHR to come together at this crucial moment to make a deep mark in the Cup championship pursuit.

Denny Hamlin believes the iron is hot

For the longest time ever, Tony Stewart was wallowing in misery. His two-time Cup championship-winning team had no drivers in the playoffs and zero wins over the past two seasons — despite running a large four-car team. But when Stewart lost all hope in May, jeopardizing the futures of 323 employees, alarm bells rang out. They put their heads together to die out in glory, as SHR is slated to shutter by year-end. Chase Briscoe was at the helm of this team which struggled yet battled till its last breath, and Denny Hamlin is all praises for this.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver saw his chances fade at Darlington during the lap 344 wreck. However, Denny Hamlin was fascinated to see SHR finally regain some reputation, as it clinched its 70th Cup victory. He hailed their effort at a difficult track like Darlington Raceway. “At tracks like Darlington, you’re not gonna luck up and win…It just, it takes too much from the car driver, the pit crew, and all that. And the 14 team has all those pieces of the puzzle together. They have decent enough funding to where their cars are fast enough, their pit crew’s good enough, their driver’s good enough.”

With this glorious comeback, Denny Hamlin is also hopeful that Tony Stewart’s team will keep up their momentum. After all, what can be better than delivering a Cup championship before the light dies out totally? “I don’t know exactly how it’s run, so I can’t tell you what they could change to do that. But certainly yeah, their focus will be to get the 14 up there as high as they can and make the deepest Championship run that they can.” 

Stewart-Haas Racing employees are ready to take up that challenge, despite the already daunting situation that they find themselves in.

Not going gentle into that good night

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After 16 long years of stellar runs, SHR deserves a glorious end. Chase Briscoe and his compatriots are making that happen already. By bringing the No. 14 car to Victory Lane, Briscoe completed a full circle. Tony Stewart had wheeled the same car to the team’s very first victory back in 2009. And then the team owner went on to clinch the team’s first championship in 2011. So even though most SHR employees are not sure where they will go after 2024, they are sure about one thing. – they will dominate the 2024 playoff story.

That is what Briscoe’s crew chief, Richard Boswell emphasized in a post-Darlington victory interview. He observed that SHR is giving its best despite being in dire circumstances. “I can’t tell you how many guys I have in my office every week wondering, where should I go? I’m worried about my future. You have to have those conversations, just from an empathy standpoint. You have to take those guys in and let them know that you care. That’s just added more work and more hours. I would say that’s been the biggest difference — just trying to be mindful of what everybody is going through, but also know we have a job to do, [and to] try to do our best to bring the best cars we can every week.”

Evidently, SHR people are at their battle stations to not go gentle into that good night. Denny Hamlin may be right in thinking that they would make a deep run into this season’s championship run.