Denny Hamlin Insider Reveals the Harsh Side of NASCAR’s Schedule Forcing Sleepless Nights

The NASCAR race weekend schedule has undergone major changes with the turn of the new decade. Especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, when the practice sessions were cut down significantly. This means that the action was now only restricted to two days of weekends rather than three. All that is left of the practice run is a 20-minute window, which hardly allows the teams to make changes to their race cars.

In theory, this limited schedule was expected to provide a level playing field for rookies and less experienced teams. But all it’s done is push the engineers and crew chiefs to put in extra working hours after the qualifying runs on Saturday. Denny Hamlin’s crew chief, Chris Gabehart, shared in a recent interview how the grueling race schedule can be on the teams.

The real work starts after the NASCAR qualifying rounds on Saturday

The drivers are the real beneficiaries of a short-race weekend schedule. After preparing for the entire week, all they need to do is hop in the race car on Saturday and run the qualifying rounds. If all goes well, it is indeed a good break for the entire race team, but there are days when crew chiefs and engineers need to put in the extra working hours.

There are days when the NASCAR garage closes out at noon or so, allowing the team members to return to their homes. However, this sounds good in theory, as crew chiefs and teams are forced back into action to take account of their week’s work. And make adjustments to the race car after the qualifying rounds. “You’re at work; from the time you leave until the time you come back, you’re at work. When you’re doing the job of engineer or crew chief,” Gabehart explained.

He further explained that there are days when the engineers and the teams have to put in a late-night shift to get optimal results on race day. “There are some (schedules) where you don’t get out until 6 or 7 at night, and you’ve got to be back at 7 a.m. Those are brutal; it’s very common in those schedules for us to be up until 2 or 3 a.m. working on finalizing the plan. Whether it be simulation or what are we going to do to the car? Or because of where we’re starting, how does that change our philosophy? There’s a lot of details that go into it.”

It’s fair to say that the duo of Hamlin and Gabehart have put their foot forward since the start of the 2024 season. Gabehart emphasizes the use of data to make the fine calls that have helped them get the wins this season. But there were times when they had to resort to the old-fashioned way of calling out race strategies based on instincts.

Bristol tire wear racing showcased the winning chemistry of the #11 JGR team

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The crew chief of the #11 team is one of those few who emphasizes making decisions based on data. For this very purpose, the #11 race booth includes multiple monitor screens, radar channels, and even TV broadcasts to aid the team in making strategies and even improvising. Gabehart explained how the entire week’s prep work and Saturday’s qualifying helped the team forge a plan for race day. Thus allowing them to make fine calls on the back of the extra working hours they put in to deliver a winning race product.

However, all of this prep mounted to nothing at Bristol, where he had to improvise and rely on the old-school strategy of winning NASCAR races, which they rightly did. “It was so unexpected, and the tires and track behaved so differently that all of that prep work you spend Monday through let’s say, Sunday morning was all kind of garbage. You had to literally start to work off of instincts, of what you needed to do with the car, how the driver had to behave, and how race strategy needed to be called.” Gabehart said this on a podcast via Racer.

The good news for Hamlin and the #11 team is that their strategies, curated by Gabehart, have led to massive success this season. Going forward, it will be interesting to see how things fare up against the challenge of Hendrick Motorsports and their drivers. They are their clear rivals who can impede their plans to win the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series championship.