Once again, it was the Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota show during the Eero 400 at Chicagoland Speedway. This time, though, it was Chase Briscoe who emerged victorious, leading a JGR 1-2-3 ahead of Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin. Bell pushed Briscoe hard for the victory, but the #19 driver eventually prevailed. However, their battling would not have done anything to calm Joe Gibbs’ heart.

Joe Gibbs told reporter Tim Moore about the stress of these situations.

“I think what I normally do is get nervous when our cars get up front together,” Gibbs said. “It definitely can happen, and has happened to us. When it does, it takes a long time to put it all back together. So I worry about that first, but you got to remember each one of our teams. They got their own sponsors, careers, everything they’re fighting for. They got their team. Chase has got James and everybody that works on that car. Christopher, everything he has going with Adam, and everybody they have over there.”

“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. Sometimes our Monday meetings at 2 o’clock 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 the way they treat each other the right way. A lot of that comes up, you just have yo work your way through it. It’s because we’ve got really competitive guys all across the board.”

Let’s be honest, no team owner likes to see their own drivers battle fiercely with each other. There is too much risk of a crash if things go too far and if the drivers get too overzealous. After all, the cars are expensive, and it cannot be easy to fix any potential damage. So in such an event, Joe Gibbs admitted that the day after the race, they have their debrief and iron things out.

He acknowledged that Briscoe, Bell, Denny Hamlin, and Ty Gibbs drive under the JGR umbrella. However, the four and their respective crews are considered separate teams. This race had huge championship implications.

Denny Hamlin extended his championship points lead over Tyler Reddick with his third-place finish. Reddick himself endured a torrid day in the office, owing to some issues with his car, and he finished down in 36th place.

Meanwhile, Chase Briscoe has moved up to 8th in the championship and has firmly cemented his playoff spot. As for Christopher Bell, these are encouraging signs. He continues to bounce back after a bad crash at Michigan earlier in the summer. This second-place run is his best finish in the No. 20 car since that accident. What makes things even better is that he has consistently improved in those races since the accident.

Last weekend at Sonoma, he actually managed to finish in 5th place, and now he was 2nd and could have won the race. As the 2026 season gets closer to the playoffs, Joe Gibbs Racing is clearly the team to beat. But having four incredibly fast cars can cause problems.

Gibbs knows his drivers will keep fighting each other for the win. But as long as his teams keep taking the top three spots, the boss is happy to handle the stress.