NASCAR CUP SERIES: SOUTH POINT 400

October 4, 2026

Joe Gibbs

James Small

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by Coach Joe Gibbs and crew chief James Small, tonight's representatives from the winning team, with Chase Briscoe of the South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

James, take us through what was going through your head in those, say, five, ten last laps as Larson was trying to chase down Chase.

JAMES SMALL: Better mark me up on murder charges (laughter). I was a little worried I was going to have to throw him off this building if he gave this one away after last week.

Yeah, it was stressful. You know, obviously it's just really struggling behind that huge group of lap cars there. It was just picking him off one by one, and those guys had clean air coming for us. You know, it was like Jaws coming with Larson once he started running the fence.

Yeah, thankfully found a way to hang on. I look back at all of our wins. They've all come down to the end of the race like that. He doesn't like making it easy on us, that's for sure.

THE MODERATOR: Coach, talk about what a win can do like this for Chase as we head into the second half of the chase and not only him and the entire team that's in the chase.

JOE GIBBS: I can say you can see what's happened in the last five races. It's been kind of wild. You've seen people come from ninth and tenth to the front of the field, and I think it's going to be the same way for the next five races.

It's going to be great for the fans, and I'm just hoping that we can get going. It shows you how hard our sport is. The 19 had a great day. Our other three cars all had issues. So it's just going to be chaotic. I think it's going to be great for the fans.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Do you think Chase did anything differently today that he didn't do last week at Kansas?

JAMES SMALL: Main thing is we didn't hit the wall a number of times. That was a positive. It was a little different today. Our car was set up more for clean air. Obviously we led a lot of the race and managed it quite well.

Then getting in the traffic situations it was a little harder. You saw that kind of last weekend with Larson. He kind of struggled when he got the cars. We were turning a lot better, and once we did get clean air, kind of hurt our rear tires. It was kind of opposite today. You know, if we had our time again, we would like to be a little freer there to keep it turning better. I think we would have got through traffic just a little better.

But it's just such a hard balance with this car, and you know, cycles and it just depends on where the traffic ends up. Clean air, it's just 30 million different things going on.

Thankfully we found a way.

Q. For Joe, how much do you feel like today may have been a little bit of a lost opportunity for Denny to kind of cut the gap and how do you feel about his chances over the last five?

JOE GIBBS: Actually I think where we are I think we're, what, 40-something back. I think it's pretty miraculous considering everything that's happening these first five races. Everybody can see, you win a race, you have a day like Chase had today, you get 70-something points. I think that's where we are with the 11.

We needed a win, and I think we'll be right on top of it. We have five races. I only go after the first five. It's been wild. I think the next five will be the same way.

Q. 75 point day. Still trailing Larson by 84 points. What do you feel like this team needs to do over these next five weeks to chip away at that lead?

JAMES SMALL: Keep winning. Pretty simple. If he's going to keep having the days he's having, the only way you're going to close the gap is win. Obviously, you know, you look last week. I think it was like a 44-point swing. If we had won and not finished fourth and he had finished second, blah, blah, blah. So it can change so quickly.

As Coach said, I think winning is going to be huge. Yeah, just got to hope some of the other guys start to have some bad luck or issues.

Q. When you see the 5 start off the way they did and as bad as they are, and they come back and are rallying back and are in the top 5, what's it like watching that from a competitor and seeing this guy and this team all of a sudden that you thought you were going to have this massive points gain and all of a sudden it's going the other direction?

JAMES SMALL: Yeah, they just show what a quality team they are. Cliff does an amazing job, and Kyle is a hell of a wheel man. They never stop fighting, and you've seen that, you know, from that team through the whole time they've been together.

So, yeah, they do a great job. I thought there was one situation there where we stayed out and took the lead. If the 11 stayed out there, that probably would have trapped him a lap down. I thought of that at the time. Maybe that would have been the move of the race. But yeah, unfortunately, that didn't happen.

Q. This is for either one of you. Were there any concerns or issues going into today about mechanical failures? Because it seemed across the board between the 20 and the 11, they had some issues. I'm just curious, were there any concerns going in?

JAMES SMALL: No, not at all. Obviously that just happens, and preparation-wise, obviously not doing anything different. It's not expected.

Yeah, you sound like you had a big night over there.

Q. How do you assess your championship hopes now, James? You took a big chunk out of the lead, but you're still 80-something back.

JAMES SMALL: Yeah, I think if we can have five more solid weeks, anything is possible, especially with Talladega in there. Still got some really good tracks coming up for us.

Definitely not out of it. You know, you can spin up and down for a lot of people, and I still think we're going to have to win at least two, three more times. If we can do that, we stand the chance.

Next weekend Phoenix going to be great tracks for us, and, again, Homestead. We won at Talladega last year and had a big points day. That's going to be the key, who can get through that one kind of unscathed.

Q. This one is for, James. When I talked to you on pit road at this race last year it was a two-tire call that didn't work out towards the end. To come back here and vindicate that win, does it add an extra smile to your face?

JAMES SMALL: Honestly, I hadn't thought about it until you brought it up. Just happy to win. You know? Last year was a little bit of a different situation. Different time. You were racing to make Phoenix and given our position that day, I think we were fifth or sixth. We had to do that to have a chance. Today's was more of an old-school, control-the-race type thing. Honestly, that's always more satisfying.

Q. Coach, I have one for you. This might have been asked earlier, so forgive me if I'm asking it again. Chase talked about this kind of being a heavier weekend for him with it being Kyle Busch's home track and the Kyle Busch Classic at The Bullring. Just talk about what it means to you to win this weekend with the tributes throughout.

JOE GIBBS: Yeah, I think all of us in the sport, the media, everybody that's racing in NASCAR, we hate the loss that we've got. So I think everybody -- I appreciate the tributes all the way across the board. There's been a lot of them. I think it kind of reflects the way everybody kind of felt about Kyle.

It's a big deal for us and our sport. Particularly here at his home track, it's just a big deal.

The other thing I was going to mention is the 19 pit crew, they've been killing it. I know that James has done a great job with them. They have a lot to say about what's happening.

Q. This is for James and for Coach, however you want to discuss amongst yourselves. As kind of a relatively newer team that's still coming into your own, where do you guys feel like this 19 team is in terms of its growth and development, how close you guys are collectively to your final form?

JOE GIBBS: James has the best idea.

JAMES SMALL: We're somewhat complete. It's just, you know, we can move fast every week. It's just having that discipline to do the right things every week and executing.

It's still a struggle of ours at times, but yeah, we keep working and pushing and trying to get Chase heading in the right direction. There's no doubt he's incredibly talented, and he does a hell of a job. It's just trying to put it all together, and he can be one of the best.

JOE GIBBS: I think our last two weeks are examples. If they can keep that up, I think we'll be in good shape.

Q. For you, Coach, we learned about a conversation in January that you guys might be looking at going sprint car racing. Is that something that's on y'all's radar?

JOE GIBBS: We might be doing what?

Q. Sprint car racing. Heather said she talked to Brad Sweet in January and talked about getting a high-limit charter. Is that something you guys would like to pursue?

JOE GIBBS: No discussions that I've had. If Heather is having them, she might be going in a different direction. No, that's not on my plan.

Q. James, Chase has talked about, you've talked about it, and obviously we've seen it where late in races that some of the driver-induced issues. How do you work with somebody on that to help them through that, but also to the point where they're not in a situation like today and the athlete is just thinking as opposed to reacting, because I'm guessing that's a pretty fine line?

JAMES SMALL: It is, and I'm no sports psychologist or anything, but you know, I think he's got to have the belief that he can do it. He has shown time and time again he's had the ability to hang on.

It comes down to us, giving him a car that he feels comfortable in. You know, it's hard. You got to have the balance in such a tight window. When we do, we can just rip.

So if we can have days like today and get it all working for him, then he has the ability, and he has the -- he's very level. He doesn't get too flustered in the car. That's probably his biggest strength, to be honest. If he just has the belief he can do it, like today, then yeah, he'll be fine.

Q. So what did you see today out of him that maybe he didn't execute as properly in some of these recent chase races where he's had things like at Bristol or elsewhere, Kansas, and so forth?

JAMES SMALL: They're all different situations. You know, today we're racing for the win, so you've got to put everything on the line. There's been times where maybe, you know, we haven't settled for what we should have, and we've given away points throughout the year. You know, we've talked about that a lot of times.

I think that maybe comes from his past where when he had opportunities, he really had to make the most of them and overdrive it.

He's been working on it. He's been doing great. You know, I think this win, you know, especially after last week and the last couple of weeks really, will give him a lot of confidence for the next five.