NASCAR’s season ends with a small final group of drivers who race for the championship. Getting to the “Championship Four” means you’re one of the last drivers still eligible to win the title.
The Coke 600 is a major NASCAR race held at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Because it’s long, strategy and tire/pit decisions matter a lot for who ends up winning.
Pit road is where the teams stop to work on the car. If there’s an accident there, it can damage the car and cost you the race.
Term
executing
“Executing” here means doing the race plan the right way. It’s about turning a fast car into good finishes by making the right moves at the right time.
Person
James Smalls
James Smalls is a team member the host is asking about. The conversation is about how he feels after working hard to reach victory lane.
Indianapolis is a famous racing location in the U.S. When they say they’re getting closer to Indianapolis, they mean the team was heading toward an important race weekend.
Corey LaJoy is a person involved in stock-car racing. Here, he’s described as the crew chief, which is the team member who helps direct strategy and car adjustments for the race.
A “truck race” means NASCAR’s Truck Series, where cars are built to look like pickup trucks. It’s a major league in NASCAR that many drivers use to earn a shot at the top series.
The “Cup Series” is NASCAR’s main top-tier racing series. If someone says they found success in the Cup Series, it means they did well at the highest level of NASCAR.
A go-kart is a small, lightweight racing vehicle typically powered by a compact engine and steered with a simple steering wheel. It’s a common entry point for young drivers because it’s affordable, easy to set up, and teaches basic racing lines and control.
Martinsville is a famous NASCAR race track. It’s known for being short and having tight turns, so the speaker is saying their mini track feels similar.
Counter-steering means turning the steering wheel the opposite way of where the car is sliding. Drivers do it to help the car regain control and point where they want to go.
To drift is to slide the car sideways while still steering it. It usually happens when the tires lose grip, but the driver keeps the car under control.
A burnout is when the car’s tires spin and make a lot of smoke. Drivers do it for the show, but it can wear out or damage the tires if it’s not done carefully.
Term
tire blew so fast
He’s saying the tire got destroyed really quickly while the wheels were spinning. That can happen when the tire overheats fast, especially if the tire type is meant for shorter runs.
“50 lap tires” are tires that are expected to last about 50 laps in a race. If you do a burnout on tires like that, they can overheat and break down much faster.
The gear you’re in affects how hard the tires are being worked when you spin them. Higher gears can make the burnout generate more smoke because the tires heat up faster.
He’s saying that if you do a burnout in lower gears, you usually don’t get as much smoke. That’s because the tires don’t end up getting worked the same way.
Talladega is a famous NASCAR track where cars go very fast. He’s using it as an example of what his burnout looked like there.
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Welcome my friend, my guy, Chase Biscoe,
our most recent winner in the NASCAR Cup series. Chase, how we doing?
I'm doing good. How about you, mama?
You know, it's a beautiful morning. You know, sun's out.
Great day to be alive.
Yeah, great day to be alive. The dogs are barking. Kids are running around crazy.
No, that's your house. That's not my house.
You said you couldn't hear him.
I can't hear him.
So, you know, I just I just wanted you to feel the vibes, you know.
OK, all right.
Oh, bro, you guys have been on a tear here recently.
Just stacking points and stacking good days,
bringing fast race cars to the track and you finally broke through with the wind.
How does it feel to be back in the wind column in the Cup series?
Yeah, it's it's great.
It's it's crazy just how the mindset, I guess, is changed from
you're going from Stuart Haas, where I went like two and a half years
without winning a race. You kind of just, I don't know, you get kind of caught up
in, well, it's probably not going to happen for a while again.
So then you go to JGR, you know, you win three races the first year.
It just becomes normal and expected.
And, you know, when you go 20 something weeks without winning it, it starts to teach you up.
So yeah, glad that we were finally able to get back in the wind column.
You know, seeing my teammates went in, obviously, with Denny a lot.
And you tie it went in earlier this year.
And it was glad that we were finally able to hang a 19 banner up there at the shop.
It felt like it had been forever.
So yeah, definitely feels nice to get one.
Can you talk about that difference between being an SHR, especially at towards the end, right?
Like it was kind of you just kind of not going through the motions,
but it was ending so that the expectations are different.
And now you go over to JGR, you have three wins last year, like you said,
you make a good playoff push for the championship.
And so the expectations are maybe a little different.
Can you kind of explain the differences?
Yeah, it's definitely different.
You know, just at SHR, like you wouldn't go to the
mean, you're going every weekend to try to win, like, don't get me wrong.
And now we were all trying everything we had every single weekend.
But I think realistically, you just knew that there was going to be some weeks where,
you know, if you can run, say, eighth, like that's that's a solid day where
at JGR, if we run eight, it's like what in the world went wrong?
Just the expectation.
And yeah, just how they approach the mindset is way different.
You know, I was on Marisa last night.
I said, it's crazy being a JGR like how different I said, not that they're numb to
wins, but like you just you should go win like a start.
It's a big deal, but it's not not a big deal at the same time.
Like you did your job. Congrats.
You should win.
It's just a totally different atmosphere than what I've been at a lot of my career.
So yeah, it's it's definitely different.
You know, and I wasn't at SHR when, you know, Kevin was one of nine races in a year
and all four cars were winning cup races.
You know, I think if I was there during that time, I think it probably felt very,
very similar because when you are winning all the time, it's it's almost easy.
Like as crazy as that sounds, you know, you can just go to the racetrack
and you're always in the mix where it's when you're you're struggling,
where it just feels like it's almost impossible.
Like you can't figure out how those cars are going that much faster.
And I've lived both sides of it, obviously.
So yeah, it definitely is different.
But yeah, it's a great place to be, especially when our cars are as fast as they are right now.
What is it about the beginning of the year?
It just seems like for y'all's group, I don't know.
I don't really feel like you've changed anything of your processes.
But it seems at the beginning of the year for the 19 last year, it's been like a grind to get going.
Like you see the speed, but the results and the speed don't make sense.
And then you get to about Coke 600 and all of a sudden it's like a light switch.
But I know internally it can't be like that.
No, it's definitely the truth.
You know, for on the 19 at least, whatever reason, it's definitely been, you know,
I think last year is just learning, learning the car, right?
And learning, you know, everything that was JGR.
But this year, I mean, coming off the championship four deal, like we were expecting to go light it up
at the beginning of the year and, you know, be right there battling for the regular season points lead.
And it just wasn't the case.
You know, I think from a speed standpoint, it was, you know, more than capable of happening.
Just a lot of things, you know, three out of the first four weeks, we finished 37th, you know,
get caught up in the big one at Daytona running second or third, I think a Coda and break a transmission.
Finish 37th there, Phoenix blew a tire, like it was just a lot of just misfortune.
And then add a lot of the races even early on in the summer, you know, have great speed, you know,
Charlotte Coke 600 could have been battling for the win.
I caused a crash there, you know, Texas have a car capable of winning, get wrecked on pit road.
Like it's just been a lot of, you know, mishaps and misfortune, you know, on my end, on mechanical
and like just a lot of different things.
So yeah, I felt like over the last four or 56 weeks, we just finally started executing.
And, you know, when you execute with the speed that we have, you're going to be in contention to win
the races and going to be running up front and getting the finishes.
And that's just something that truthfully we weren't doing at the beginning of the season.
Yeah, when you look at your group on the 19 and your leader, James Smalls, and you guys, you know,
I saw the picture of the selfie and it looked like everyone was stoked.
Everyone was happy.
What is James' emotions like going from, you know, trying to dig hard and get to victory lane?
And then when it finally happens, you know, what is he like after the fact?
Yeah, James and victory lane is like my favorite person.
He's just a very, he's a very intense individual.
Like he just, he works so hard at what he does that it's fun to see the fruit of that come out in victory lane.
And, you know, for these 15, 20 minutes, it's like all this work, all the effort that, you know, he puts in,
the team puts in, you know, they just get to celebrate that finally.
And it's just a super fun environment to be a part of because of that reason.
And I think, you know, just James expects so much out of his right that whenever you do finally cross that mountain top,
it's a lot of fun for him just to let loose for, you know, those 15, 20, 30 minutes, whatever it is in victory lane.
So that's pretty fun to see how fired up he gets.
You've been in the situation of racing teammates a lot.
Now it's been at the front of the field more than in the middle of the field.
That's different.
How do you go about going, going about that, especially when one of your teammates is Denny Hamlin and Denny does one of the best jobs?
I feel like in the field of putting people in a situation that may make them a little uncomfortable and make them make a mistake.
So how do you, how do you kind of flip the script and put him in those situations?
Yeah, it's, it's a challenging thing to, you know, do as a race hard driver, you know, especially when it's your teammates,
just because at the end of the day, like you have to do what's best for the company and you, you can't, you know, wreck you and the other guy for the win or whatever.
Like a company car needs to win.
So the unique thing about JGR is it's, you know, very similar to, you know, Hendrick or something where, you know, typically you're racing your teammates for the win and you know that.
So you're racing in the whole race trying to get the track position on them and all these things.
But it's hard at the end of these races, especially when it is your teammate, because there's time to win the race.
Like you do need to do stuff that, you know, can even be risky for yourself, right?
Like you have to make these big moves that has potential to crash, you know, you and your, your other guy or, you know, you have to put the other guy in a really bad spot.
Well, when it's your teammate, you can't do that.
You have to be a little bit smarter about it.
So it's a challenge to do those things, you know, why you're racing teammates for sure.
But JGR, you do get a lot of practice, I guess in a sense doing that, like you're always racing behind your teammates.
And you kind of do understand the foundation of what's what's okay and what's not okay.
And whenever you do cross that line, obviously the Monday meetings, you know, they, we figure that out and, you know, we grow from it.
Yeah, you guys had a lot of, a lot of reps at it lap after lap at Nashville.
That was man, that battle between you, C-Bell and Danny was just, it was like a dog fight.
It's like watching fighter pilots in a dog fight, man.
That must have been so much fun racing for the win like that.
Yeah, it was fun.
You know, it was kind of two weeks back to back.
The Cook 600 was kind of the same way.
I think it was the end of stage three.
There was like all four of us were up there battling for the win of the stage and, you know, two and three wide.
So it is fun, but it's frustrating when you're not the one that wins because you do that.
You had every opportunity that they had and you didn't get it done.
But yeah, the Nashville race was pretty cool.
I think from a company standpoint, just having all three of us, you know, be three wide, literally taking the white flag.
And yeah, I wish we would have came out on the better end of it.
But regardless, it was still pretty cool.
What's the relationship between you and your teammates?
Like, I feel like that's something that no one, no one ever really knows how all the teammates are.
Are they friends off the track?
Are they just, you know, friends in the in the business end?
Like, what is it like between you and the other three JGR teammates?
Yeah, I mean, I don't know what it was like at JGR before I got there, obviously.
But I mean, I feel like right now, even just in my short ten years, this is the best it's, you know, truthfully ever been, you know, always get along.
We all had this high respect level for each other.
We all know that we can go win races and we all feel like we're pulling the rope in the same direction.
We all feel like we can bring stuff to the table to make all of us better.
So yeah, I definitely I've enjoyed it.
You know, I've known it's kind of unique for me because I've known Christopher basically over half my life.
You know, I didn't really have any interaction with Ty or Denny before I came over here.
But yeah, we just all get along honestly really, really well.
And we talk off the racetrack, you know, before the races and stuff like that.
And yeah, we just get get along and it makes it nice when you can all get along.
Obviously, we all race each other extremely hard on the racetrack.
But I think there's, like I was saying, just this respect level between all of us.
That is it's a very hard thing, I think, to get when you have four teammates.
And yeah, for us, I think we all have that right now.
I kind of want to go back to go forward a little bit.
There was a time where you didn't know what not a time.
There's been multiple times where you didn't know what you were going to be doing as far as your race career next.
And I remember as we're getting closer to Indianapolis, working on some kid named Chase Briscoe's car at the Arca race.
And my crew chief was Corey LaJoy.
And we had a time.
I thought we were going to win that Arca race for sure.
Is that your first Arca race?
Yeah, my first ever race.
Yeah.
Yeah, we okay.
So we about had it.
We about had them licked on that night and this strategy didn't work out.
When you look at coming from that point where you're a couchsurfing to now where you're at with your beautiful family.
Like, have you had time to really take in that journey yet?
Are you just still hammered down looking forward all the time?
No, I definitely, you know, I see Facebook memories and seven just popped up.
It's like a week and a half ago.
It was 10 years ago.
I won my first ever Arca race and to think that 10 years ago.
I mean, that feels like a long time when you think 10 years ago, but it really does not feel very long at all.
And just to think that in 10 years, I went from, you know, sleeping on couches,
volunteering there, cutting in motorsports and just thinking if I ever want another Arca race, like my career was made to
now, you know, this weekend is going to be 200 cup starts and you'll be driving it at Joe Gibbs Racing.
You know, have six cup series wins like it never in a million years did I think that I would be doing that?
Like honestly, the goal was try to try to run one truck race.
And if you could make it to one truck race, you were a NASCAR driver and that was more.
I mean, I never thought I'd run an Arca race, let alone a truck race.
So you had to have, you know, coming up on 200 cup starts now and to be able to have success in the cup series.
It's something that I definitely, you know, look back on and think about a lot.
When, when you won the first time, it was Tony Stewart that was giving you the call.
Now it's Coach Gibbs, who Tony probably learned a lot of the business and from what is that like working for two different
legends and two very different type of legends.
Yeah, it's definitely, you know, two different, you know, people for sure.
You know, Tony was from the driver side coaches obviously from the coaching and ownership side.
But regardless, just how my career is kind of panned out and played out is honestly really, really cool.
When you look back and think about how I was this diehard Tony fan and then to get to drive for Tony in the 14 car,
but then now to drive for Coach and, you know, really where Tony's career started.
It's pretty crazy to think about.
I think the only thing that would have made it crazier is if I was driving the 20 car.
Yeah, it's just it's nuts to have my whole career is kind of panned out and yeah, extremely blessed for sure.
Yeah, your family has gotten bigger.
You got 33 kids run around now.
What has it been like trying to balance that?
Trying to make sure that you can be in the race car and put, you know, food on the table and also be there for your kids.
Yeah, it's a really tough thing to do.
I actually sat with Coach probably, I don't know, two or three months ago and kind of asked him that like,
how do you give 100% to your job, whether it's driving a race car, coaching a football team,
but also give 100% to your family and your kids at home.
And it is a extremely hard thing to do is to do them both at a really, really high level.
And I think for me, the big thing is obviously having a great support system, you know, with my wife, right?
Like, she's just an absolute rock star because she's home alone with three kids a lot during the week,
almost every single weekend.
You know, we have a four and a half year old and year and a half old twins.
And I mean, she is, I mean, we're in the thick of it, but she's really in the thick of it on these weekends.
When it's just, you know, her and, you know, having a support system with, you know, my father-in-law and mother-in-law,
then my parents, you know, being able to drive down from Indiana a lot and come help.
It takes a village and, you know, without Marissa, for sure, I couldn't go and do my job at the level that I do it.
Just being able to have that trust that, you know, she's got things handled at home.
So, yeah, it's a very hard job.
I tell myself all the time, if you think you got it bad, you could be Marissa right now, three little ones.
And yeah, she's the one that has a really hard job.
So, yeah, it's just something, you know, going back to, you know, being able to do both of them 100%.
So I think the big thing is just being able to, the thing that helped me the most is actually talking to your camera roll about is just,
you know, when you're at home, be home.
Don't even think about racing, literally shut off the whole outside world.
And then when you're at the racetrack, kind of not shut off your family, right?
But be focused on what you're doing.
And I think, you know, for me and Marissa, you know, she knows that when I'm at the shop or at work, like, unless it's an emergency,
like, let me just focus there.
So when I come home, I can be 100% focused at home too.
Your oldest has been kind of wheeling a lot.
And he's been driving, I feel like, something, whether it's a lap or a go-kart, since he was like two.
Yeah, he's been, he has a little go-kart that he go.
We've like, we needed to turn around in our house for a drive through, like to be able to turn around in our driveway.
And we made it like a mini Martinsville.
It's like legit, a little oval.
So he's got a go-kart that he rips around out there.
And I guess that's like my one thing that I'll do at home is I'll get out there and rip with him.
But yeah, ever since he's been two, I guess that's when he first got it.
You know, we put him on this thing and like, just here you go, go drive it, see what happens.
And like, he instantly knew how to counter steer.
And now, I mean, he full-blown drifts this thing all over the place.
He wants to race, but I don't know if he needs to be doing that at four years old already.
But yeah, he's pretty good.
I mean, I feel like obviously we're out on bias, but I mean, I feel like I show videos and other people are like,
dude, how does he do that?
Like this thing goes like 15, 20 miles an hour.
And I mean, he can drift it the whole nine yards.
He's pretty, pretty good at it.
Uh, you might be, you might be creating an animal over there.
Well, it was, I felt like bad, you know, the last Christmas when mom had all these like home videos, right?
And she pulled up a video the first time I ever drove a go car.
I was like four and a half, five years old, same age as him.
I couldn't even go in a straight line and I'm like, this kid's been drifting since he's like two or three years old.
So yeah, I might be in trouble here in a couple of years.
Well, if you're in trouble, I mean, it's a good problem to have.
It's a good problem to have.
Uh, I'd be remiss to talk about a little bit your faith.
You have a very strong faith.
I think part of your victory celebration, honestly, probably every time you get in and out of the car, you take a moment.
What's that moment about?
What are you thinking about in those moments when you take that knee and you kind of are just in your thoughts?
Yeah, just every time, you know, it kind of started in 2018.
Um, I did it afterward in the roval and it was kind of this thing.
I felt like the Holy Spirit was calling me to do it and ever since then I've just kind of done it.
Um, and yeah, just I get out of the car and I get down on one knee and I just say a quick little prayer.
Uh, normally, you know, tell them, thank you for the opportunity and just let me use it to glorify him.
You know, whether that's in interviews or how I act after the race or whatever it may be.
And then, you know, normally try to get us home safely and you know, just say a quick little prayer.
Um, and yeah, I've just done that my whole career, you know, after a win, um, you know, obviously I'm praying all the time,
whether I win or not.
But, um, you know, it's just been a moment for me to kind of sit there and take a second and uh, yeah, say a little prayer
and then then we'll do our little celebration.
I think Peyton Manning said it.
He said, I don't think God cares about a football game is what you basically is.
Like, I don't think he cares about that, but it's not about that.
It's about using the platform, um, to, like you said, glorify and, and, uh, push forward and spread positivity.
So I always love, I always love when I see you do that.
I feel like it's a very good connection for, for us all to remember what, what it's all about.
I will say though, you know, we, we grade burnouts here, Chase, and we're happy to see you.
I thought it was never done.
I, man, you said it, not me.
Like what's going on here?
Yeah, it wasn't very good.
I told the guys on the plan, I said, that was the worst burnout I've ever done in my career.
The tire blew so fast, probably cause they were 50 lap tires, but I, my thing is I always get it to the highest gear.
That was a fifth year burnout.
Like it was like the tires were ripping.
That's why there was a lot of smoke for the short duration.
Um, but yeah, they blew so fast that I didn't really get to like do one cause I didn't want to tear the car all up.
But yeah, I always get the thing to fifth gear and that's why there's a ton of smoke.
These guys are doing it in first and second gear.
You don't get a lot of smoke.
Um, like even Talladega, when I went to Talladega last year, I was fifth year, 7,000 RPMs in a burnout.
Like the tires were going 180 something mile an hour.
Um, so yeah, it's all about Will Kimmel.
He told me that back in the arcade days.
He said, you got to get that thing in the highest gear you can and just let it rip.
So yeah, I was bummed about my burnout.
Okay.
Well, at least we all know it.
We can look for it.
I literally did like one spin and then I was burning up the racetrack and I was going to nose it up to the fence as I was doing the burnout.
Then it blew the tire like halfway up there.
So I didn't really get to do it.
Yeah.
It's okay.
It's all right.
There's the effort.
The thought was there.
The effort would have been great if it didn't blow the tire.
Well, when you said, when you stand on top of it, you always stand on top of the roof.
I feel like two.
Yeah.
I like hyping the crowd.
It looks good.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Get them going.
Yeah.
And then I did the fishing celebration.
Oh, you did?
Yeah.
I hit him.
I hit him with the.
Okay.
That's a good.
I missed that point, but that's that's solid.
Okay.
Well, I'm going to give you more marks because, you know, it's about entertaining the crowd.
If you're throwing a little fishing line out there and reeling them in, yeah, that's program.
It's pretty awesome.
I hyped the crowd up and they were going nuts and I pointed the best pro on the hood and I did that.
Man, I appreciate your time.
I'm so proud of you, brother.
I feel like it's been a long time.
I always feel like it's been a long time coming.
Even though your six wins in at this point, I should expect you to win, which I do.
But like, it's, I feel like it's one for the racers, you know, the guys that don't make it and that try so hard to get there.
And you were on that same type of path and you were able to kind of shed some light on that.
I, there's a picture of us after you went at Phoenix and you're walking because you blew the tires out of it and you're walking down the road.
I'm, I think I'm jumping in your arms.
I had some dress shoes on.
I about busted my trying to get over to you.
But man, I'm just really excited for your success.
Yeah, I appreciate it, buddy.
All right, man, take care.
Chase, let's go Cup Series winner.
About this episode
Chase Briscoe celebrates getting back in the NASCAR Cup win column and talks about how the mindset shifts between SHR and JGR. He explains that at SHR, long win droughts can make success feel unlikely, while at JGR the expectation is to win—especially when the cars are fast. Briscoe attributes early-season struggles to misfortune and execution issues, then describes the “light switch” after weeks of learning and tightening up. He also discusses teammate racing with Denny Hamlin, the respect-driven JGR culture, and the intensity of multi-car battles at tracks like Nashville.
Chicagoland winner Chase Briscoe sits down with us for an exclusive, wide-ranging interview. Chase takes us inside the brilliant Lap 215 green-flag pit cycle engineered by James Small, the intense mental math of holding off his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Christopher Bell in the final laps, and the immense pride of taking the red, white, and blue Bass Pro Shops Toyota straight to Victory Lane on America's biggest weekend.
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