Joe Gibbs recalls famous football recruiting story amid Chase Briscoe announcement

Amid inking the multiyear deal with Chase Briscoe from the next season, Joe Gibbs has looked back at one of his tough recruiting stories in the NFL. The 83-year-old revealed the challenging time he went through to convince Mike Kirkland's mom to let her boy play football.

After much speculation about the vacant Toyota seat, Joe Gibbs Racing has announced signing Chase Briscoe as their upcoming driver. The #14 Stewart-Haas Racing driver will replace Martin Truex Jr. in the #19 Camry from 2025 onwards.

Joe Gibbs and his sons founded JGR in 1992. Before that, he was a football coach in the NFL. He served as the head coach for the Washington Redskins from 1981 to 1992 and 2004 to 2007 and paved the way for their four NFC Championship titles, three Super Bowl wins, and nine entries into the playoffs through his 16 seasons with the team.

However, before advancing to the NFL, Gibbs coached two years each- at Florida State, the USC Trojans, and the Arkansas Razorbacks. During his time with the Arkansas from 1971-1972, the then-coach encountered a big challenge while trying to sign Mike Kirkland for his team.

Amid Chase Briscoe's deal announcement, Joe Gibbs went down memory lane and recalled his "toughest" recruitment story.

"I go out the very first year and I'm trying to figure out who can I talk in go to into Arkansas, it was 11 hours away. I started recruiting Mike Kirkland, he was a Quarterback and played in the NFL for a while. So I start recruiting this kid. I'm going in that house [Kirkland's] and selling everything I can and I'm telling his mom, 'Hey, It's a nine-hour ride, you'll love it,'" the JGR owner said via Claire B Lang on X (0.28).

He continued:

"So every time I left the house, I swear she was saying to me, she would go, 'Hey, I'd rather for him to go there [Baylor Bears football school]. I just gotta tell you, I'd really go to Baylor."

"I said, 'Don't say that, you're gonna love this, you can still go on the weekends, it's a nine-hour ride' and so I get him. The very first time she comes up on freshman year, she goes, 'I'm gonna tell you something too. That's a 13 hours ride.' But we got him [Kirkland]," Gibbs added.

"They just wanted me for me"- Chase Briscoe reveals the thing he noticed only in Joe Gibbs' team

Stewart-Haas Racing announced shutting down their operations from the 2025 season, and the drivers are left without security for the next season. The now free agents are trying to lock a deal with a team on the paddock, but signing with another team does not come easy even if one is a great driver. Not only does the race prowess of the driver matter but how much sponsorship money they can bring to the table also plays a pivotal role.

Running a NASCAR team is very cash-draining, and the teams largely rely on their sponsors' backing to fund their day-to-day operations. Though the charter system guarantees entry into every points-paying race on the calendar, it does not result in a lucrative earning from the race weekends. Thus, teams generally look for drivers who could bring some high-paying sponsors to ensure seamless operations.

Chase Briscoe reportedly lacked a huge financial backing from the sponsors but that didn't come in the way of his new deal as the driver revealed a different scenario inside the JGR garage.

While weighing specifically on his future team's character and result-first approach rather than a sponsor-first approach, Chase Briscoe said.

"Out of all the teams I met with, Joe’s is the only team that never said, ‘What can you bring?' They just wanted me for me. That meant a lot to me personally, just that they felt that strongly about me in the car. Joe was the one that literally called me two, three times a day and would reassure how bad that they wanted me in the car," Briscoe said via NASCAR.

Chase Briscoe is confirmed with JGR, while Josh Berry is in talks with Wood Brothers Racing. It will be interesting to see how the remaining SHR driver's deals turn out.