NASCAR CUP SERIES: COOK OUT SOUTHERN 500

September 6, 2026

Heather Gibbs

Adam Stevens

Press Conference

An Interview with:

Q. We are joined with two of our race winner team members, co-owner of Joe Gibbs Racing Heather Gibbs, and crew chief Adam Stevens. If you have a question for either, Adam or Heather, please raise your hand, we'll get right to questions.

Q. We keep hearing that Darlington is a really tough race for the drivers because it's so intense. What is the hardest race for a crew chief, and why?

ADAM STEVENS: I love your work, by the way. It's very insightful.

This one is up there. I don't know which one is the hardest, but this one is tough, right, because you know, you are trying to play the green flag pit game, and all that depends on so many factors.

The biggest factor is the one that you have absolutely no control over, and that's what happens after, right? A lot of times, which we didn't see tonight, but, you know, the guys that really short pit or get off sequence get rewarded by a downstream caution. You know, we've seen that flip the field multiple times here.

So that makes it challenging. Most difficult, I'm not really sure. They all have their nuances, as you well know, and this one is up there towards the top, for sure.

Q. Adam, what did you keep telling Christopher this season when he probably was seriously getting frustrated with the second places and the second places? Did you have to keep him calm? Did you have a certain strategy?

ADAM STEVENS: We talk a lot. We spend a lot of time, especially on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. Then whatever challenge we faced or things that went good and went bad, we try to put a bow on it and focus on the next one.

You know, you have stretches like that in this sport. Maybe this one was a little bit unprecedented, but it happened, and then it didn't happen because we weren't doing the right things as a team. That's what you have to stress to him, and you have to constantly point out, hey, we're in this situation because we are doing the right things.

As quickly as you can get hot, you know, like we started the beginning of last year or the 45 started this year, you can get cold. Not to pick on the 45, but they've had a stretch where they haven't been able to produce probably at the level that they're actually competing. That's the nature of the beast in some regard, and professional sports as well.

You have to take them as they come and try not to let that baggage affect your decision-making or let those emotions, you know, guide you in the future. You have to really come into each weekend with a clean slate, and he's done a fantastic job with that.

Q. At the end of the race Kyle Larson decided at the very last minute not to pit, and you pitted and went with new tires. Did you have to kind of calm Christopher down about that, or were you planning a track position game the whole time?

ADAM STEVENS: No. For us we felt like five was too many, five laps on tires was too many, especially with the laps that we had left.

I wasn't concerned about the cars that stayed out. I was more concerned that we were going to have a handful or more on rights, and I thought that could be trouble. Our long-run pace was so good I didn't want to do anything to really jeopardize that. Thankful it played out with the decision-making that it did for the field. I felt pretty confident in our situation as long as we had a good restart

Q. Just expand on that. I was actually curious, when you are looking at that situation, they're running some laps under caution and then they red flag it for the other section, what is going through your mind as the crew chief? Are you wanting them to keep running under caution or stop and let everything wait for the rain to pass?

ADAM STEVENS: Well, what you don't want is them to go back green too soon and then just run a couple of corners and then have a caution. That would be pretty messy. I think they did a good job of, you know, waiting until it cleared, and it did clear enough to go, and we went. It certainly did start raining again.

But you know, you run a lap and a half, two, three laps here, it could really flip the field and get us in a noncompetitive running order, which as a competitor I don't want. I don't want it for myself fortuitously or against me. I don't like that kind of stuff.

It seems like they handled it the right way today.

Q. Heather, it's very clear the Toyota, particularly Joe Gibbs Racing, have an advantage. Everybody is picking one of the drivers it seems like to win the championship. Organizationally, when you look at this, if you don't win the championship this year, is it going to feel like a missed opportunity?

HEATHER GIBBS: I think absolutely. I mean, I think we've worked so hard as a team and as an organization to be consistent and have four competitive cars. Obviously points, coming, showing up every week, just as Christopher has, having all those top twos where it's criticized, and that makes a championship caliber team to be consistent.

I think absolutely, it would be a disappointment. We need to capitalize on points. Stage points obviously is huge. It showed up tonight, and so, yeah.

Q. Adam, we hear a lot about Denny Hamlin, and it seems like that team doesn't really have much of a weakness, unless they have a little bit of bad luck. How do you compare the 20 versus the 11 straight up?

ADAM STEVENS: That's great. That's a great question. It's a great barometer. I have a lot of respect for Denny as a driver and what he brings to the program and how much he understands his car and how his affect on his balance and his setup and how he uses his tires, and he does such a good job elaborating that in our competition meetings.

He's a rare breed in that regard from the way that he grew up and as long as he's been doing this. Thankful to have him in our stable, and we've learned a lot from him. Gayle has been around forever. We've kind of up through the ranks similarly. You know, they don't have any weaknesses.

A lot of that is from the experience and the strengths of Denny. You know, he's been able through his time to turn his weaknesses into strengths. You know, Dover might be an example of a place where he was historically terrible, and now he's easily one of the best there.

In that regard for us, you know, I didn't think we were ever going to go through this year, prior to the start of the year or even the start of this weekend without winning a race. That being said, I didn't have Darlington on my schedule circled as one that was at the top of the list.

Historically for us we haven't been the best. We've been competitive on occasion and we've missed it big on occasion. You know, to come out of here first race of the playoffs, second race -- first race, yeah, first race, sorry, with a win and run as good as we did all night feels really good. I know that we're going to be one of the cars to beat in the next handful of weeks.

Q. Speaking of next week, next week is Gateway. Everybody has that circled for Team Penske, but the Toyotas seem confident they can bring something there as well. Where do you assess that next week versus Penske for that race?

ADAM STEVENS: Yeah, I mean, I think we know who we're going to be racing. Our teammates in the Penske cars and a couple of others, for sure.

But, you know, it's been historically a fantastic track for us. We've had everything we've needed to win there. We're going to win one of them, but dropped a cylinder there late when the 2 ended up winning two years ago.

But, you know, it is what it is. It's a unique place. It is what we would consider a short track. It is a short track package, but there's not another track really like it on the circuit.

So it's a great place to race. It's got its own challenges, and I think we're up to it.

Q. Before the rain, Adam, Christopher ends up getting passed here by Chase. I'm just wondering at least from you, did it feel like it was potentially deja vu all over again when that had happened?

ADAM STEVENS: You know, maybe. I kind of had that feeling a little bit more on the pit stop where we gave up 12 spots or whatever it was at stage two more than I did, you know, racing hard on a restart, but there's a lot of ways to lose a race in this sport. I think I've done most of them multiple times, you know, so it is what it is. But there was a lot of laps left too, and we had a really strong car. Thankful we had an opportunity to make it right.

Q. Either of you can answer this, but this is the first time since 2019 where all four Gibbs cars have won in the same season. Just from your perspective, how difficult is it actually to get all four cars in unison running when it matters the most?

ADAM STEVENS: Well, the most difficult part about that is we've had multiple years where one team is successful, right, and other teams aren't successful. So you know the cars have capability. You know the program has capability. We're all privy to the same information and have the ability to make our own decisions with that information.

What we haven't had, by and large -- you know, certain times, like you mentioned, 2019 and some other years as well -- is the wholeness of the teams and the talent behind the wheels to really make that happen. That, you know, 54 team has made such huge strides in a very, very short amount of time. Where do you start today? Almost dead-ass last and came up there and finished second, right?

That is hard to do at this track especially. It might be the hardest because your balance changes so much as you migrate through the field. The relationship that Tyler and, you know, that team and Ty have built and that whole team is special. I've been a part of relationships like that, and I can recognize it.

I think all of our teams are in a really good spot in that regard, and I think that's what we're kind of seeing. You know, we have the capability. We have the program, and we have the ability to make good and bad decisions with that information, but the internal strength individually of the teams is next level right now.

Q. Going back to the pit crew, I know they lost those spots after stage two, but then after William Byron's caution, you made a point to come on the radio and pump them up, told them, "Way to step up" after helping you guys gain a spot on pit road. How big is it for that group moving forward and seeing how critical pit stops are during the chase?

ADAM STEVENS: Yeah, you know, it's huge. There's a lot of races won and lost on pit road. Thankful to have the group and the department that we do.

It's not fun when they go against you like that, but it's part of the sport. You know, they, I think, one thing that our team is good at and especially the B-team, I'll include them as well, is looking forward.

They can't go back and change what happened. They can't change anything about last week or the last stop. All they can do is look forward and be the best they can be.

That's kind of been the road that we've been traveling here lately, and you know, I think they do a good job of exemplifying that.

Q. Adam, this is I guess two different parts. NASCAR has been throwing competition cautions, I mean, since the existence of the sport. Then you throw in the New Hampshire competition caution where they don't allow you guys to do live green-type pit stops. Are those valuable, the live green-type pit stops? Do you wish that NASCAR didn't babysit you guys as crew chiefs?

ADAM STEVENS: We're talking about two different things, right? That was wets to drys or wets to wets if it's a rain race. A wet pit road is not something you want to mess around with, with cars locking up tires and guys jumping over the wall in close quarters like that.

I don't want to be responsible for having one of my guys get really hurt, and I don't want to see anybody else in that situation. So I think they manage that situation as best they can.

This one today, I honestly thought was a little bit odd. We haven't had a competition caution on an oval in quite some time, even with no practice, even with no qualifying. I don't think that it was necessary. I don't think it hurt the show or ruined the show.

I think we were all going to two-stop stage one anyway, and we ended up with a caution right around the time we would have been stopping.

But, you know, I don't know the reason for it this week when we haven't had one in similar situations in recent history.