NASCAR: Chase Briscoe on his way to 2021 Cup promotion?

After being overshadowed by the “Big 3”, Chase Briscoe has emerged as a top driver in the NASCAR Xfinity Series this year. Will that lead to a promotion to the Cup Series next year?

With the “Big 3” of Tyler Reddick, Cole Custer and Christopher Bell all having been promoted from the NASCAR Xfinity Series to the Cup Series ahead of the 2020 season following two seasons of occupying three of the four spots in the Championship 4, Stewart-Haas Racing’s Chase Briscoe set a goal of winning between eight and 10 races this year.

Briscoe won one Xfinity Series race driving for the team in 2018 before landing a full-time ride with them for the 2019 season. He won just one race in the 2019 season, but he finished in fifth place in the championship standings as the highest non-Championship 4 driver.

Among the drivers set to return to the Xfinity Series this season, he ranked second last year behind Justin Allgaier. But Allgaier has been competing at NASCAR’s second highest level of competition for 10 years and has never won a championship, so the 25-year-old Briscoe was seen as the championship favorite.

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The Mitchell, Indiana native has cemented himself as the championship favorite to keep up that trend.

Winning between eight and 10 races was never going to be easy. Even last season when the “Big 3” combined to account for 21 victories while the remainder of the full-time drivers won just six of the other 12 races, none of the “Big 3” won more than eight races. But Briscoe has outperformed even those expectations so far this season. He won five of the first 13 races, and through 27 races, he leads the championship standings with eight victories and a series-best average finish of 7.4. No other driver has won more than five races.

Having a season like the one Briscoe is having or even becoming the Xfinity Series champion is certainly not a guarantee for a promotion to the Cup Series. But Briscoe has driven himself into that discussion, and rightfully so.

If he ends up in the Cup Series next year, where might he end up?

The team that makes the most sense is obviously Stewart-Haas Racing. While Aric Almirola recently signed a contract extension, Clint Bowyer is still a pending free agent, and Stewart-Haas Racing have adjusted their Cup Series lineup after each of the last four seasons.

Ahead of the 2020 season, they promoted Custer from their Xfinity Series team. They could easily do the same with Briscoe.

Briscoe is also reportedly in the discussion to replace Jimmie Johnson behind the wheel of the #48 Chevrolet at Hendrick Motorsports, since he is a Ford driver and not tied to Stewart-Haas Racing beyond that.

Of course, every driver under the sun has been linked to this seat at some point since Johnson announced last November that the 2020 season would be his last, so take that with a grain of salt.

There are several other teams that have seats without confirmed drivers for next season, including Wood Brothers Racing, but there don’t seem to be any plausible scenarios that end up with Briscoe driving for any of those teams in 2021.

Go Fas Racing, given their technical alliance with Stewart-Haas Racing, could make sense, especially since Corey LaJoie has announced that he won’t be back with the team next year.

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Has Chase Briscoe done what he needs to do to warrant a promotion to the Cup Series next year? If so, will Stewart-Haas Racing hang onto him, or will he end up elsewhere?

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