“I’m shocked, shocked, to find that gambling is going on in here!” – Captain Louis Renault in “Casablanca.”
You only get to announce something once.
Wait, scratch that.
You only get to announce something officially once.
Aaaaaand, if by some chance one of your employees happens to spill the beans a few days early, you have to make your official announcement count.
Or funny.
We’ll call this maxim the “Christopher Bell Rule” for short.
It’s not often a NASCAR driver accidentally confirms Silly Season news — and news that isn’t even related to themselves — in a press conference.
But Joe Gibbs Racing’s third-most-senior driver gave us this exact gift last Friday (June 21) in the New Hampshire Motor Speedway media center.
Who could possibly be replacing Martin Truex Jr. as the driver of the No. 19 Toyota in 2025?
Here’s Bell with the latest.
There was only one Chase in the NASCAR Cup Series garage looking for a ride next year.
After Tony Stewart decided to pull up stakes from Stewart-Haas Racing, that Chase was of the Briscoe Variety (™).
Thankfully, when JGR put out it would reveal Truex’s replacement on Tuesday (June 25), the team leaned into the can of worms Bell had opened.
Then came Tuesday.
JGR put a cherry on top of the whole deal by having the first person up to the microphone to bless the ceremony be Bell.
“Since I had the mistake of starting this on Friday, I guess I’ll get to finish it out today,” Bell said. “So we’ve got our team owner Joe Gibbs, crew chief on the No. 19 car James Small. It is my honor to finally announce the full name of our driver next year: Chase Briscoe in the No. 19 car.”
In most years, Silly Season is a pretty bland affair.
More often than not, there are very few surprises and a driver’s destination is known long before the official announcement.
Sure, there are exceptions. Like in 2022 when 23XI Racing’s surprise announcement that Tyler Reddick would join the team came disguised as a normal team media availability over Zoom.
So JGR’s approach to news that everybody knew ahead of time was a nice change of pace.
“I think it’s the worst kept secret in the sport for a while…
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