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“That’s His Natural Demeanor”: Chase Briscoe Gets Candid on Working With Straight-Talking Crew Chief James Small

Jerry Bonkowski
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Chase Briscoe answers questions from the media during NASCAR Cup Series Playoff Media Day at Charlotte Convention Center.

One of the first things Chase Briscoe learned when he joined Joe Gibbs Racing prior to this season is that his new crew chief, James Small, is a straight shooter.

Small, who previously was crew chief for the now-retired Martin Truex Jr., who Briscoe replaced at JGR, is a no-nonsense kind of guy. He says what he means and means what he says, to borrow an old, hackneyed phrase.

But Small and his attitude were just the thing Briscoe was seeking after leaving the now-defunct Stewart-Haas Racing. That’s not a knock at Briscoe’s crew chief at SHR, James Boswell, but Small just has a knack that immediately clicked with Briscoe. And the proof is in the results.

Briscoe enters this season’s NASCAR Cup playoffs having enjoyed the best season he’s ever had in Cup racing: one win, 10 top-fives and 12 top-10 finishes, as well as a career-best six poles.

And there’s still 10 more races to add to those stats, with Briscoe’s and Small’s collective hoped-for end result of winning the championship. That means beating guys like his JGR teammates Denny Hamlin and Christopher Bell, as well as others like William Byron, Kyle Larson, and Shane van Gisbergen.

While Briscoe will be doing the driving, Small will be doing the strategizing atop the pit box. It’s been a great marriage, with potentially even greater things to come over the next 10 races.

When asked what some of the more unique words the Melbourne, Australia-born Small has taught him thus far this season, Briscoe laughed and demurred with his answer.

“I can’t say them on air, I’ll get in trouble. James’ vocabulary is definitely unique. I guess it’s just the Australian lingo,” Briscoe quipped during this past week’s NASCAR Cup playoff media day.

“Some words that they say all the time there that we don’t say here, which I’ve definitely heard a lot. My favorite was actually last week, he came over the radio and we had like these code words.

“We had one for A through like E or F or something like that. And he was saying D and I couldn’t understand what he was saying. He’s like D for (expletive) and I was like, ‘Okay. All right. Got it.’”

Briscoe is much different than Martin Truex Jr.

While Truex was more aggressive and impulsive behind the wheel and on the radio, Briscoe believes he is a change of pace for Small.

Briscoe said, “Honestly, for James, I think it’s probably a nice change for him to have somebody that’s very, just easygoing and nonchalant all the time. Because Martin (Truex Jr.) I think would go back and forth. We heard it all the time.

“For James, that’s just how he talks. It’s not like he’s coming off to be rude or anything. That’s just his natural demeanor and how he talks. And yeah, it definitely can get taken out of context a lot of the time.

“There’s been times where I want to say something back. Like I’ll ask all the time, ‘Hey, what’s our teammates got going on?’ And he’s like, ‘Don’t worry about our teammates.’ I just like knowing that stuff. But I just don’t say nothing back ’cause there’s no point arguing back and forth.”

Post Edited By:Abhishek Ramesh

About the author

Jerry Bonkowski

Jerry Bonkowski

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Jerry Bonkowski is a veteran sportswriter who has worked full-time for many of the top media outlets in the world, including USA Today (15 years), ESPN.com (4+ years), Yahoo Sports (4 1/2 years), NBCSports.com (8 years) and others. He has covered virtually every major professional and collegiate sport there is, including the Chicago Bulls' six NBA championships (including heavy focus on Michael Jordan), the Chicago Bears Super Bowl XX-winning season, the Chicago White Sox and Chicago Cubs World Series championships, two of the Chicago Blackhawks' NHL titles, Tiger Woods' PGA Tour debut, as well as many years of beat coverage of the NFL, MLB, NHL and NBA for USA Today. But Jerry's most notable achievement has been covering motorsports, most notably NASCAR, IndyCar, NHRA drag racing and Formula One. He has had a passion for racing since he started going to watch drag races at the old U.S. 30 Dragstrip (otherwise known as "Where the Great Ones Run!") in Hobart, Indiana. Jerry has covered countless NASCAR, IndyCar and NHRA races and championship battles over the years. He's also the author of a book, "Trading Paint: 101 Great NASCAR Debates", published in 2010 (and he's hoping to soon get started on another book). Away from sports, Jerry was a fully sworn part-time police officer for 20 years, enjoys reading and music (especially "hair bands" from the 1980s and 1990s), as well as playing music on his electric keyboard, driving (fast, of course!), spending time with Cyndee his wife of nearly 40 years, the couple's three adult children and three grandchildren (with more to come!), and his three dogs -- including two German Shepherds and an Olde English Bulldog who thinks he's a German Shepherd.. Jerry still gets the same excitement of seeing his byline today as he did when he started in journalism as a 15-year-old high school student. He is looking forward to writing hundreds, if not thousands, of stories in the future for TheSportsRush.com, as well as interacting with readers.

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