NASCAR CUP SERIES: EERO 400

July 5, 2026

Joe Gibbs

Joe Small

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: We're going to get started with our post-race media availabilities. We've been joined by our team-winning owner, Joe Gibbs, who is no stranger to being on this stage here this season. Coach, congratulations on another win. Exciting for the organization and exciting for Chase and team to return to victory lane.

JOE GIBBS: It is and just on a special weekend. Just appreciate everybody here in Chicago. Treat us absolutely great. Just great being back here, to be truthful.

Loved the street race, by the way. I thought that thing was a huge success. Loved that. Just great being back in this area. So many great fans.

I'll reflect on it with Chase and James and Bass Pro. It's just a great weekend to celebrate that. It means so much to us. As I've said 100 times in here, for our sponsors, it's just great. To have them be a part of our team and be partners in this, it's just a huge deal. Johnny has just been so supportive.

It's just all of this, just appreciate it. Realize how fortunate we are. God has blessed us with just great people and hard-working people that really get after it. Really appreciate it. Just want to say a big thanks.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Coach, you had -- Toyota has had seven of the top 10 finishers for the first time in its history. How do you keep this advantage and maintain this for the rest of the season?

JOE GIBBS: Yeah, I don't know if we can. We're going to get after it and try. The best guy to ask is probably right here. James just sat down.

It's great. I've said before in pro sports the hardest thing is to stay up in pro sports. Everybody realizes what great teams we got out there. This is the best series in the world for racing cars. Everybody is working extremely hard. It was a battle today, and it was great to get the 19 across the finish line, for sure.

Q. Kind of touching on what you just said about basically having a hot hand, in sports, I'm sure, when you have had football rosters that were expected to be Super Bowl contenders, and it became very obvious this year that Toyota had the hot hand, and capitalizing on those opportunities I imagine are really important. Are you cognizant of that within the shop internally that it's, like, we know these things always shift and go back around to someone else, so we need to win these races when we have the hot hand?

JOE GIBBS: I think our people there, they live it, they understand it, and have been in this. People like James leading us, we know how hard everybody else is working.

Today very easily it could have gone to the 24 or whatever. So we know, you know, how competitive this is. One week doesn't buy you the next week.

As a matter of fact, we kind of have been telling everybody at our place, hey, let's work even harder, because we know everybody else is working so hard. It's really hard just to stay up there and keep performing like this. I think we got great people. I think all four cars right now, I feel real good when we go to the racetrack. I think we're capable of winning with four cars.

We got great leaders, like James. So it just makes it easy for me.

Q. I'm curious on the timing of the undercut and when you guys came down. I know there's a huge war room that's crunching numbers at all times. How precise or how ragged edge is that knowing that at any moment the 24 could decide to jump out ahead of you, and you guys are kind of playing a game with each other. I'm curious, what is that entire process of communication, you on the box, and the war room?

JOE SMALL: Yeah, it's obviously -- you put a lot of work into the pre-race prep and kind of have an idea of what the plan is going to be in any given situation. At least I do in my head.

Every lap is just a process. Okay, what are we going to do right now? What are we going to do? You are constantly managing the gap there, and you know what the undercut is work. It's like you said, a game of cat and mouse. You don't want to go too early because you don't want to risk burning your tires off at the end. All it can take it two or three laps difference.

I knew we were getting close enough there and close enough to the number I had in my mind where I thought everything would work out and be safe at the end. We got to that, and thankfully he hadn't pulled the trigger yet either, and it gave us that opportunity, and then it just kind of started the chain of reaction with everybody else.

The pit crew as well played a huge part in that. They did a great job today and got us in and out of the box really fast as well.

Q. (Off microphone).

JOE SMALL: It really is, when you put it like that. That's part of why I love my job. That's calling races and having those opportunities. The green flag cycle and the strategy section of it makes it so much fun.

Q. Coach, you talked about the street course. You like street courses. You like this. If it were up to you, would we come back here next year for sure? Would we flip? What would you like to see happen with this place?

JOE GIBBS: I can't imagine that we wouldn't. I think there's been a lot put into this, and I think, you know, this part of America is huge for our sport. We got a lot of our sponsors here, enjoy this. I think from everybody's standpoint, I think the reason we came back is a huge deal, and everybody recognizes that. So hopefully.

Also here we're talking about the street race, so we'll see what all happens. That's out of my hands, that's for sure.

Q. Any personal preference?

JOE GIBBS: As far as the two races? No, I really don't. I enjoy, like I said, the street race. I'm sure the powers to be are looking at all this. Who knows? We may do both. Who knows?

Q. James, a lot of talk this year obviously about Denny and Tyler and kind of them being out in front and everything. You guys are, I think, 10th or 11th in points. It doesn't look like you guys are going to end the regular season way ahead up there, but are people sleeping on you for a championship team, because does it matter where you guys start the chase if you guys show that you can do this on a consistent basis?

JOE SMALL: Yes and no. We have incredible speed a lot of the time, but consistency and execution in the races and putting whole races together has been a little bit of a weakness. It's been a focus of ours the last few weeks.

We're really in this predicament in 10th and 11th in points where every point matters. To be realistic, you know, we've all done the math equations over the years. You want to have the best shot be inside the top 6 if you can be entering it.

Even before the season started, I think I did the math, and if you use last year's results with this year's points system in the playoffs, we scored the most points, but we wouldn't have won the championship because we were seeded too far back.

We had a goal this year. I think if we can keep running like this, maybe we can attain it and get ourselves to 5th. I think tonight would have been a good step. I think somebody told me maybe we're 8th now, but I haven't seen that.

Yeah, I believe in our team. You know, JGR and Toyota gives great equipment, and it's up to Chase and myself and everybody on the team to execute and put fast cars out there. If we can do that, there's no excuses why we can't be a contender.

Q. Obviously a lot of talk about the Toyota and the speed, not only tonight but throughout the course of the year. Seven Toyotas in the top 10. That said, did Chevrolet show you anything tonight that maybe the Hendrick cars are kind of coming? The 24 was up there all night obviously. The 5 was fast before he spun. Then the 48 was fifth as well.

JOE SMALL: Yeah, and even the 9 was there at times. You can never sleep on that company. There are great people there. As Coach said before, we know they are working as hard as us; it's up to us to work harder so they don't catch us.

They had the new body this year and trying to learn that. It's not like they're going to build a car that would have been worse than what they had. So we fully expect them to get to where we are, and it's up to us just to execute and keep doing a good job.

Q. Joe, what does it say about Christopher Bell that he was able to compete as well as he did tonight on such a bumpy course wearing a splint as his wrist still recovers? I can't imagine that was a pleasant drive.

JOE GIBBS: Yeah, many times with athletes you see the way they deal with an injury. It means a lot. The day after he broke the wrist, the next morning at 9:00 I show up at the race shop. He's there parked out front, and they're waiting for somebody to bring out a wheel because they want the cast to be molded to the wheel.

I thought that was, you know, getting after it. I think today he had a soft cast. I think they may go back to a hard cast next week because it being Atlanta and all the chaos that can happen there.

But, anyway, I think he's handled that as well as you can handle it. He's got a burning desire to stay in there and win. I think he had, you know -- he had a real good car tonight, too.

Q. Joe, I was wondering if you could talk about Chase Briscoe and what he's brought to JGR as a person and especially him being a person of faith, the first thing he does after he wins is get out of the car and kneels and prays.

JOE GIBBS: I appreciate you bringing that up. He's just a first-class person. The one thing when we were talking about bringing Chase on board, the thing that really stuck out, every sponsor he had been with really was saying something to us about wanting to come on board. He just does a great job with the sponsors he had before.

Now obviously and he Johnny got along great, and they had just taken off together. Great partners there. I think he loves being with Johnny. He's an outdoors guy. He's a fisherman and all that.

Then, of course, you mentioned his faith. He's just a really strong, godly, young guy. Great family. That's great to have him on our team, for sure, because that means a lot, too. First class.

I think last year, I mean, who would have dreamed last year sat on seven poles and do everything he did last year and go to the final four, he and James, all that they did was just -- it was a huge deal for our company. And it's great for the future for us going forward.

Q. First off, Coach, just kind of recall your thoughts there at the end of the race, because Chris, as well as Chase, they're battling for their first wins of the season. What's going through your head there in the closing laps?

JOE GIBBS: I think what I normally do is get nervous when our cars get up front like that together (laughing), because it definitely can happen and has happened to us. When it does, it takes a long time to put it all back together.

I worry about that first, and you hope, but you got to remember, each one of our teams, they've got their own sponsors, they got their own careers. Everything they're fighting for. They got their team. Chase has James and everybody that works that on that car. Christopher, you know, everything he has going with Adam and everybody they have over there. So there's a lot that's going through a driver's mind.

They have a burning desire to win, and it comes out sometimes as very competitive. You know, sometimes our Monday meetings at 2:00 can be contentious, because it may not be just at the end of the race. It may be some things that came up during the race about, you know, did they treat each other the right way.

A lot of that comes up. You just have to work your way through it, and it's because we've got really competitive guys all the way across the board.

Q. James, just to confirm your suspicions, it's 46 points out of 5th, and you are in 8th as it stands. Big picture with Chase, just from season one, season two, I know obviously the last year the seven poles, but what is the big difference that you have seen personally from him from year one to year two? What kind of jumps has he made this year?

JOE SMALL: Incremental. I think we made some really big strides last year. There's been certain things we've really been trying to focus on. Every week he's just incrementally getting better and better.

There's still a lot we can do to be better, honestly. It's my job to just push him to his absolute limit. I think last few weeks -- you know, last week he did an exceptional job really putting things we worked on into practice and definitely adjusting during the race and getting better. The same thing here tonight.

We struggled a little bit with some things on Friday, and yesterday was not great. Although we qualified seventh, we expect better. He did a great job tonight. He started off stage one just needing to work on a few things. The big thing about him, he can listen and put it into practice in the car. That's one thing. He's not vocal. He doesn't complain, and he just gets after it.

If we tell him something, he believes in us, and he does a great job of executing on that.

Q. Coach, following up on a previous question, regardless of how the schedule is going to turn out for next year, how do we continue to grow and expand the sport here in the Chicago market?

JOE GIBBS: I think one of the things we've got going for ourselves is NASCAR right now is so progressive and after it. Ben kind of leading it. But if you kind of see what's happened, we took a racetrack and put it inside of the coliseum. Just think about that, what that opens up in America. Where could we do that again?

Then the fact that we're street racing. Just think about all the places that we could maybe go and street race. I think that is awesome. I think it gives us a chance to touch different parts of America where you're not going to get a racetrack built, but we can go there.

I think the fact that I just really appreciate leaderships right now with NASCAR. I think they're after it. I don't think they're afraid to try things. We go to Mexico. Who knows what's next? But I appreciate that, because I think our sport is for everyone in America. Hopefully we continue to be really aggressive on where we go. I think it's a real test for drivers. I think that's great, too.

You think about our champion, he's going to have to street race, short tracks, and everything that a driver has got to do in NASCAR to win a championship.

Q. For James, given the fact that Chase is now five intermediates and this is the final one before, or the postseason begins, just walk me through how important tonight was from a perspective of getting it right before or we go to more of these miles and not superspeedways?

JOE SMALL: Yeah, you know, we came here thinking we could win. We've had a intermediate program this year, as far as the 19. We've had incredible speed at all of them. Just like I said before, poor execution. Vegas was an issue. Speeding, crashed at Charlotte, crashed on pit row in Texas. All in when we're running inside top 3.

So the potential is there. It's just having clean races. Like you said, you know, heading into the playoffs with so many of these tracks on there, it really sets up well for not only us, but our whole company.

I'm looking forward to it.

Q. Coach, you're no stranger to winning on July 4th weekend with Tony Stewart, Kyle Busch, and a few others. How special is it to win not only on America too weekend, but to sweep the weekend with yesterday's O'Reilly win as well?

JOE GIBBS: I thought that was great. Brandon yesterday, I think he's been with us, but I think that, for me, was probably his best race.

You're up against a real veteran that's really, really good. I do appreciate Elliott, the way he handled things after that race. That guy is a class person. Appreciate that.

But, anyway, I thought that was great to have that happen for Brandon. He's such a great, young guy. He's our veteran with our O'Reilly program. That's a huge deal for us. To come back here and to win tonight, I really think, you know, for the 4th, you couldn't have a better 4th for all of us. Hopefully all of America had a great time. Just appreciate being here, like I said.