Chase Briscoe found out early that working with James Small would be different. As in, at the table when the driver and crew chief got together for lunch soon after Briscoe was signed by Joe Gibbs Racing.
“It was one of the first conversations,” Briscoe said during Daytona 500 Media Day. “I think James and I went to lunch, and he ordered this super-healthy bowl, and I ordered this fried stuff. He was like, ‘That’s going to change.’”
In June, Briscoe was announced as the next driver of the No. 19 Toyota at Gibbs. He is not taking this opportunity lightly, and believes it gives him the first legitimate shot at winning a Cup Series championship.
Small would be the crew chief to guide him there. And the Aussie wanted to ensure his new driver would be all-in on the process.
“James is super into fitness; he and his wife are diehard,” Briscoe said of the diet change. “As diehard as you can get about eating right, working out. So, when I came over there, James was like, ‘So, what do you do?’ That’s a big part of his life, so he wanted to know how I approach it. I was like, ‘Well, truthfully, I don’t ever eat fruits or vegetables. I eat all fried food, and I don’t work out.’ He was like, ‘Well, we need to change that. I want you to be 100% in the race car at all times, and if I’m putting 100% on my end, I want to know that you’re 100% bought in, too.’”
The solution ended up being simple: Kat Sims, Small’s wife, is now also Briscoe’s trainer and nutritionist.
“It’s been good for me, truthfully, to have his wife do it, because it holds me way more accountable because if I don’t do it, he instantly knows,” Briscoe said. “If it was the team or TRD has the driver program, I could probably get away with not going, and he would never know. But with his wife doing it, it holds me extremely accountable.
“I’d be lying if I said I was perfect at it. I could do way, way better. I did really well for three or four weeks and lost almost 10 pounds, then I (plateaued). But that’s where it came from – that’s just such a big part of his life that he wanted me to be the same.”
On Wednesday night, Briscoe and Small started their partnership off by winning the pole for the Daytona 500. It is the first pole in the event for Briscoe, Small, and Toyota. It is the first Daytona 500 pole for Joe Gibbs since 1998.