Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race at Chicagoland saw a different level of dominance from Toyota and Joe Gibbs Racing. From a podium sweep by JGR to Toyota securing seven of the Top 10 places, a historic first, it was pure and utter dominance from the two organizations at the eero 400.

Gibbs sat down for a press conference after his driver, Chase Briscoe, won the race. The first question he was asked was to shed light on Toyota's stronghold in 2026, especially the Chicagoland race, and how they can maintain the momentum going forward.

"I don't know if we can. We're going to get after it and try," Gibbs replied. "The best guy to ask is probably right here. James [Small, Briscoe's crew chief] just sat down. But it's great. I've said before, in pro sports, the hardest thing is to stay up in pro sports."

Following this, he hailed Briscoe, who grabbed his first win of the season and became the third JGR driver to emerge victorious this season. Teammates Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin finished in second and third place, respectively.

"Everybody realizes what great teams we've got out there," Joe Gibbs said (via Cup Scene on YouTube). "This is the best series in the world for racing cars, and everybody's working extremely hard. It was a battle today, and it was great to get, you know, the 19 across the finish line for sure."

Besides Briscoe, Bell, and Hamlin, the other Toyota drivers in the Top 10 were Bubba Wallace in sixth, Ty Gibbs in eighth, Corey Heim in ninth, and Riley Herbst in 10th.

With Briscoe's victory, Toyota brought home its 11th win in 19 races. Hamlin and Reddick lead the chunk with a combined nine wins to their name.

Toyota's count would be 12 in 20 if we count Denny Hamlin's win at the non-points-paying All-Star race at Dover.

JGR driver upset after losing to Toyota "monkey"

Joe Gibbs Racing's Christopher Bell was upset after losing to his teammate Chase Briscoe. The No. 20 driver was unhappy that his fellow teammate beat him in a car that even a "monkey" could drive.

"Toyotas are fast. It seems like a monkey could drive them. Just disappointing whenever you get beat by another monkey," Bell joked in a post-race interview with TNT Sports.

But besides this comment, he was genuinely downbeat about his second-place finish. He said, "I'm not good enough" after what was his fourth runner-up finish of 2026.

Bell started the race in sixth place, a place ahead of Briscoe, but the latter was superior in all the stages, making him the better driver on the day. What made Bell's job tougher was a collision with Todd Gilliland on lap 49 on pit road.

It made his car "really, really loose," and eventually, he also made a mistake on a green flag in the final stage that cost him time.

Apart from the seven Toyota drivers, two Chevrolet drivers, William Byron and Alex Bowman (fourth and fifth), and one Ford, Ryan Blaney (seventh), were there in the top 10.

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Written by

Sabyasachi Biswas

Edited by

Yash Kotak