Chase Briscoe Predicts Darlington Cup Race Will Be “Absolutely Out of Control”

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chase Briscoe has shared his thoughts on the potential chaotic event that will take place at Darlington due to car design change.

Chase Briscoe Predicts Darlington Cup Race Will Be “Absolutely Out of Control”

Chase Briscoe (Via @chasebriscoe/X)

The 2026 NASCAR Cup Series race season marked some bog changes with the Next-Gen car oval package. It features 750 horsepower, a three-inch rear spoiler, and fewer diffuser strakes. According to many in the garage, the Darlington Raceway weekend would be the biggest challenge for the drivers and JGR’s Chase Briscoe expects chaos.

On his latest appearance on The Gluckast podcast, the No:19 Toyota Camry driver was asked about the challenges he expects at Darlington. He asserted that the race is going to be out of control and pointed out that it is going to be hardest race of the season. The additional HP and the change to diffusers will play a key role in the chaos.

It’s gonna be absolutely out of control. It’s gonna be I think the hardest track we run on all year long. The added power is one thing, but the biggest thing is taking the diffuser and everything off. I mean, I’ve ran the sim for probably a week-and-a-half and you are crashing every corner on every lap, even on new tires.

Chase Briscoe said.

The racers veteran teammate Denny Hamlin was the one that started that debate over the potential chaos at Darlington. On his Actions Detrimental podcast, the three times Daytona 500 champion predicted a tough race due to the car design changes. His prediction came was the product of the many sim-race wrecks he had like Briscoe.

Further talking about the point on the podcast, Chase Briscoe, the Toyota driver asserted that the practice and qualifying sessions are going to interesting, as it will set the trend for the weekend. If any of the team finds the key to gain extra speed, they will absolutely dominate the weekend, while the rest of grid struggle.

It is out of control. It’ll be very interesting in practice, qualifying, like, literally the whole weekend I think is gonna be must see. One team is gonna hit it right and they are gonna murder the field I feel like, just because of how drastically different this thing drives.

Chase Briscoe added via The Gluckast.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. agrees with Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe

Hayk Motorsports’ Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was another driver to share their thoughts on the potential chaos. He supports the arguments put forward by Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe. The downforce package change is going to produce a chaotic race weekend.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (Via @StenhouseJr/X)

I would believe that. I would believe four seconds. Yeah, no doubt. Even if you didn’t change the horsepower, just change the downforce package, I think we would look at three-ish seconds at least. You add the horsepower, it’ll be tough to put the power down. So, I definitely could see that.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. said.

For racer like Stenhouse, it’s a great opportunity as with chaos the cars will run much closer on the track and small team like Hayk can take advantage of it. It would be interesting to see how everything is going to playout for the racers in the Darlington weekend as well as on similar tracks.

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