NASCAR MEDIA CONFERENCE

June 14, 2026

Chris Gayle

Heather Gibbs

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by the winning crew chief, Chris Gayle, along with the winning car owner, Heather Gibbs.

Chris, it's one thing to build cars with speed, it's another thing to find the execution week in, week out. The first time since 1981 Denny has won three straight races starting from the pole. Speak to ultimately the dynamic that this team has found in recent weeks in terms of the success you're having at the shop and of course at the racetrack.

CHRIS GAYLE: Yeah, it's unbelievable. When you say those numbers, I don't know that any of us could have penciled this in without feeling really, really greedy and probably unreachable at the time.

I would say execution today, great. Obviously the last couple weeks execution wasn't so great, right? We started from the back a couple different ways. But able to kind of overcome that the last couple.

Today, honestly, was pretty much we executed well. No one made a mistake. It went about how we expected, minus the 20 probably saving fuel there at the end. I don't know that I saw that one coming soon enough. I saw it 22, 23 to go. Otherwise, it's just a good time to be on this 11 team right now.

I've talked with the guys. We try to focus less on the results right now, right? The results are great. They take care of themselves. 38 cars, 37 cars here every weekend. If you only decide your worth, how well you're doing, based on the result only, you leave here devastated week in, week out.

If you base that in how well is the team functioning? Are we doing things better simulator? Making better decisions on the frontside? Regardless of what might happen with the outcome, can you build on things.

That's what we've been focusing on all year. We do one race at a time, one practice session at a time. That's what I have the most fun with and enjoy the most about this team right now.

THE MODERATOR: Heather, focusing on Pocono itself, with this win JGR is now tied for the most wins all time here at this track, and they've won nine of the last 14 races here. If you could speak to what the team as a whole focuses on and the success it has found.

HEATHER GIBBS: I mean, that's kind of what Joe Gibbs Racing is about, is everyone coming together. It's not about one team, it's not about one driver or crew chief. It's 35 years, 450 people back at the shop that we fight every single week for. They can't be here with us to enjoy these wins, but they're the ones that are the hands and feet of our organization and have given us so much success.

THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up to questions.

Q. At what point did you know you were going to catch the 20, or was there never any doubt?

CHRIS GAYLE: Maybe there was doubt for three or four laps when we were trying to scope out how long do we think they can go, what kind of pace they need to run to make it based on what they look like they're short on fuel.

Once we saw that, saw their pace, how many laps we thought they were short, we needed half a second a lap at that point with 20 to go. We were already getting that when we told him to push. Felt confident. Felt confident they were going to have to save more.

We felt better after that, for sure.

The thing that would have been different is you worry about how quickly can we get there? What happens if a caution comes out? With 10 to go, he's able to save fuel for five laps under caution, now he can make it. He has a significant tire advantage, but you never know what could happen.

You even look at the radar a little bit, there were some sprinkles and things starting to show up. If you got caught by a caution and then it rained, we would have lost the race that way. That's why we were pushing him harder.

Q. Heather, at Bowman Gray Denny said with everything that had gone on from Homestead till then, he thought this season would go one of two ways: either really good or not so good. What questions do you have about how well his season would go? Is this what you expected or beyond your expectations?

HEATHER GIBBS: Well, I can tell you with Denny and everything they went through off-season, he's a consummate professional. I think for many of us that go through a lot of tough times, being at the racetrack is our home. That's where we find the most peace and want to be back at the track. That's normal to him. I think he wanted to be back.

He had records to break. He had something to prove. He's doing it now. We joked, we were like, You're a spring chicken, you have so many years left. Now we're trying to think of how we can keep him longer.

With Denny, he's been outstanding.

CHRIS GAYLE: You had to bring this up. You brought me back to Phoenix, Bob (smiling)? I'm just joking. I'm trying to make light of it because that's going to haunt me for the rest of my existence.

HEATHER GIBBS: I was going to say, finally King's Hawaiian gets a win. His record hasn't been great with them. Today Jenna and Aaron and Mike, it was awesome to have them here for their first win.

Q. Denny's success at this track is well-documented. How much of that is continuing with coach continuing to advise and also just trying to rely on his experience and his success, find a balance with that?

CHRIS GAYLE: I think it's all because of his success here. He's talked about what made him good here. He's kind of always done and repeated, even with the different cars.

Now, with that said, he can run the fastest laps, do whatever. You've got to have good execution, particularly here, because if things don't fall your way, even if you're the best car, you're not going to pass 15 cars late in a run. You have to have all that go together.

He definitely knows what he needs to go fast here. He sat on the last two poles here. He knows what he needs to do to go fast.

Q. I haven't heard your take on if it is a possibility that you'd like to have Denny come back further beyond next year. He's kind of gone back and forth on it. From your perspective, would you like to see him continue longer?

HEATHER GIBBS: I think for Denny, he wants to leave on top, right? He doesn't want to leave where it was one year too long.

At this rate, what he's producing out there, it's not something you would not consider. We want the best drivers in our cars. Our teams work to put the best cars on track. If it works out and he's still producing and he wants to, it's a huge commitment for him, he's got his own team that he kind of wants to run. It's hard when you dangle checkered flags in front of him, too.

Q. Chris, I know sports are not played on paper. I think the feeling was Tyler has already outscored Denny on road courses and should get that advantage. How important was it to cut this deficit down as significantly as you have going into this stretch? For myself or anybody else that thinks Denny can't keep up with him on the road courses, why would we be wrong?

CHRIS GAYLE: That's a good one.

For sure we paid attention to it. Denny alluded to on the radio, I said we cut the deficit down to 19 or 20. I don't think he cares about that that much, to be quite honest with you, first or second. I think he just wants wins. I think it is that simple for him.

For us, we're watching both. Obviously one helps the other. We've known the road courses were coming up. We know it's not his strength, per se. I look at San Diego in particular as a wild card. I think there's going to be a lot of chaos there. It's unknown for everybody. I look at it from a Chicago Street Course. We finished fourth with him Chicago Street Course last race. I'm optimistic that we should be able to go do that there.

I'm optimistic that Sonoma, we weren't particularly great last year, but we have two or three cars at every racetrack that are good. We have information and help at Joe Gibbs Racing to help the one who may not be quite as good there.

We'll make some changes to the Sonoma package and try to bring something different, a lot closer to what somebody was good. San Diego we're going to be better than we probably think going into it.

THE MODERATOR: Congrats on the win today.