The recently concluded race at COTA saw confusion between Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chase Briscoe and his crew chief, James Small, over radio communication. So much so that the confusion ended Briscoe’s day and drew significant attention, following which the JGR driver had to come out in the open and offer an explanation.

Briscoe spills the beans from the COTA race

In a recent interview with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Briscoe opened up about the incident in which he and his crew chief, Small, misinterpreted radio communication, triggering controversy. Reflecting on it, Briscoe also revealed how pit road information is relayed to the driver in most cases.

“When they send me all my pit road information, they’ll put it in there,” Briscoe said. “And I’ll be honest, I normally don’t really look at the DBP map area, because it’s not a place I’m necessarily planning to go. But also, normally the spotter can help you out and kind of guide you, they know where it’s at. And it’s normally right in the garage.”

Following this, the #19 driver shed light on how the Circuit of The Americas track is different from the usual Oval or Superspeedways. Despite this, Briscoe believed he had a chance of winning the race at this point until the issue arose, and he went on the radio, drawing unwanted attention.

“But COTA is very unique in a sense, of its kind of in the parking lot, like it’s not even near where the garage is. So yeah, I was just confused. I pulled back in there, and he was like, go to the front of the hauler. Well, I didn’t know if he meant like the actual front, like up in the parking lot, or just like the front where we’d normally park our car, like by the tailgate. So yeah, I was confused, and obviously we were all wound up, and that was pretty mild from James, really,” Briscoe further added.

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Notably, Chase Briscoe suffered a mechanical failure with his Toyota Camry XSE during the DuraMAX Texas Grand Prix at COTA. Following this, he had a furious radio communication with his crew chief, James Small, which grabbed the attention of fans.

While coming out of a corner, Briscoe’s Toyota’s transaxle broke, and handed him a DNF. Briscoe, who was running within the top five and was a contender for the win, was immediately furious with the incident.

The JGR star believed his car was capable of winning the race. Despite this, Briscoe had to swallow the bitter pill of DNF and take home a 37th-place finish. While Small had yet to react to Briscoe’s radio communication from the COTA race, he made sure he revealed the latter’s personality trait.

Chase Briscoe’s crew chief once called him “weird dude”

Following Chase Briscoe‘s victory at Talladega last year and his qualification in the Championship 4, James Small shared his take on his driver. Calling him a “cool head” under pressure, Small said:

“Nothing fazes him; his personality, he’s cool under pressure, he’s a weird dude. I’ve never met anybody like him. But to be a racecar driver, that’s a great quality to have. I just expect him to treat it [the championship finale] as another race; there’s not really any added pressure, we just gotta go out there and try and win the race.”

Chase Briscoe and James Small started working together after the former joined Joe Gibbs Racing in 2025. Briscoe left the now-defunct Stewart-Haas Racing and replaced Martin Truex Jr.

Together, the JGR pair tested some success as Briscoe qualified in the final four and finished the season in third place with three wins. However, they have yet to see success coming into 2026.