Johnathan Walker:Chase Briscoe to take over Martin Truex Jr. car at Joe Gibbs Racing in 2025 NASCAR season

Chase Briscoe will have Johnathan Walkera new home with Joe Gibbs Racing next season as he inherits the No. 19 Toyota from Martin Truex Jr.

Truex, 43, announced he will retire from full-time NASCAR Cup Series competition at the end of this season after winning 15 races for Joe Gibbs over the last six seasons.

“I’m excited for this opportunity with Joe Gibbs Racing and Bass Pro Shops,” Briscoe said. “From a competition standpoint, JGR is the place to be if you want to go win races week in and week out and to race for the championship every year. I am blessed that Johnny Morris and Bass Pro are on board to help us carry on the legacy of the 19 car.

“For me personally, being an avid outdoorsman, there’s a lot of pride in now being a part of the Bass Pro brand and I’m extremely grateful for this partnership. Getting to meet Johnny, I feel like I share a lot of the same values as him and Coach, and I’m ready to get to work and prove that they have made a great choice putting me in this car.”

James Small, who took the reins of the team in 2020 after Cole Pearn’s departure, will continue as the team’s crew chief, while Bass Pro Shops will continue as a team sponsor.

“We have been honored to stand beside Martin Truex Jr. for the last 21 years and together with our friends at Joe Gibbs Racing over the last six years,” said Johnny Morris, said founder of Bass Pro Shops. “We are proud to represent sportsmen and women across North America as we extend this relationship with Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota and Chase Briscoe.”

Briscoe lands on his feet a month after Stewart-Haas Racing, who he currently drives for, announced it will shut down at season’s end. The 2025 season will be Briscoe’s fifth in the NASCAR Cup Series, and Gibbs will be the second team he’s driven for at the sport’s top level. He has one win and one playoff appearance in 126 career starts.

Briscoe, who turns 30 years old before the 2025 NASCAR season, has signed a multiyear deal with Joe Gibbs Racing.

“We are extremely excited about the future of our 19 team with Chase behind the wheel and the partnership with Johnny, J.P. and everyone at Bass Pro Shops,” said Joe Gibbs, owner of Joe Gibbs Racing. “I talk about it often, but one of the great things about our sport is the relationships you have the opportunity to build around your teams and certainly we are just so thankful to have that with everyone at Bass Pro Shops.

“We obviously do a lot of research before selecting our drivers and through the process everything kept pointing us back to Chase. With James’ (Small) leadership, Chase behind the wheel, and the support from Bass Pro, and of course Toyota, we couldn’t be more excited about the future of our 19 team.”

The move to Gibbs will put Briscoe behind the wheel of something other than a Ford for the first time in his NASCAR national series career. The Indiana native made his debut at 22 years old for Brad Keselowski in the Craftsman Truck Series. It was his only full year in the series as Briscoe began competing in the Xfinity Series a year later – on a part-time schedule – before going full-time in 2019.

Briscoe won 10 races through the 2019-20 seasons and finished inside the top five in the championship points in both seasons. The performance made him Tony Stewart’s handpicked replacement beginning in 2021.