Tony Stewart’s Mentee Is Starting to Feel the Pressure as the Margin for Error Is Lower Than Ever

Heading into the 2024 season, there’s one man who has his expectations set higher than ever after his team’s lacklustre performance last time around the oval. Tony Stewart and Co. are trying their best to turn around their fortunes at Stewart Haas Racing. Only recently, Stewart had addressed the entire team behind the scenes to state, “We’re not at the top of the hill looking down anymore, we’re at the bottom of the hill looking up,” and that “when we climb out of this hole we’re in, this is what defines legacies and organizations.”

But while Tony Stewart is optimistic about the team’s capability to pull themselves out of the slump, the pressure is piling on the young drivers at Stewart-Haas Racing. On one hand, Noah Gragson is all fired up to make the most of his chance. But when we talk about SHR’s now most experienced driver in the #14 Mustang Dark Horse, Chase Briscoe, 2024 could truly be a make-or-break season.

Can leadership status at Tony Stewart’s team help pave the way for a better year for Chase Briscoe?

It’s no secret that Kevin Harvick and Aric Almirola’s departure left a gaping hole in SHR’s lineup, which only led to further problems with a handful of sponsors like Busch Beer and Hunt Brothers Pizza choosing to leave Tony Stewart’s side. While replacements were found in Josh Berry and Noah Gragson, the number 14 was retained by Briscoe. But that fairytale might not last much longer. With Tony Stewart cracking down on the team’s shortcomings, Briscoe cannot have a repeat of the 2023 season if he wishes to keep his Cup Series journey going.

2022 was a great year for Briscoe. Not only did he almost make it to the Championship 4 but also managed to bring in a victory at Phoenix. Unfortunately, this momentum failed to transition into the 2023 season, and Briscoe’s statistics by the end of it only tell us half of the story. With only four top-five finishes and a drop to 30th in the points standings due to a major penalty, the 29-year-old could not have expected a worse season. But back then, Kevin Harvick’s competitive final campaign papered over the cracks of Briscoe’s performance.

However, as we head into the new season, Briscoe does not have that advantage. Being the only driver amongst himself, Ryan Preece, Josh Berry, and Noah Gragson to win a Cup Series race, the pressure is higher than ever for Briscoe to transition into a leader at SHR. Briscoe himself revealed the kind of pressure he is under and was quoted by NBC Sports.

He stated, “I feel like this is one of those years where it’s really going to determine kind of how my future lays out. If I go out this year and have success and contending for wins and running up front, this is one of those years where for the future, like contracts, everything could totally change. Where if I have another bad year like last year, it could totally change the trajectory of my career.”

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It’s safe to say 2024 will be a year of great expectations from Chase Briscoe. Whether it’s Tony Stewart expecting the 29-year-old to step in as a leader or Briscoe himself wanting to secure his future, the pressure is higher than ever. But there’s one thing you must know about Briscoe.

“I have always performed better under pressure” – Chase Briscoe aims to tackle the new challenge head-on

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While the pressure is certainly piling on, if we take a look at Chase Briscoe’s prior success after meeting similar challenges, it becomes evident that the 29-year-old has a knack for high-pressure scenarios. The perfect example of this would be Briscoe’s bold prediction of winning eight races in the 2020 Xfinity Series to keep his career alive. While this claim was taken by many to be farfetched from reality, Briscoe went one better than promised. He delivered an astonishing nine victories in that season to secure his Cup Series future.

Reflecting on his confidence in adversity, Briscoe shared with NBC Sports, “I feel like, for whatever reason, I have always performed better under pressure. Even if that’s compartmentalizing something for myself, even Xfinity when I said I had to win ‘X’ amount, it’s something for me to kind of strive for that I know is capable. Just I feel like a lot of people probably don’t think is capable.”

Similar to his 2020 season where Briscoe delivered a brilliant season to finish fourth in the standings, the #14 driver felt he needed to keep expectations realistic and still surpass them. He stated, “I feel like everything I said is very valid and true — but to some people it probably doesn’t as much as what I feel like it means. Kind of the same with the (win declaration in 2020). Did I probably have to win eight races to move to the Cup realistically? Probably not. I knew at the same time if I won only two races I probably wasn’t going to Cup.”

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So with it becoming evident that Briscoe is taking the 2024 challenge as seriously as possible, could the SHR fandom rejoice and expect a similar result to Briscoe’s 2020 Xfinity season? While that would certainly be ambitious, only time will tell.