“He wrecks everybody to win,” Chris Gabehart said at the end of the 2024 Cook Out 400 race. Goodyear had released its fresh set of option tires for the short-track event, and Austin Dillon used them a bit too freely. In the final set of corners, the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing driver turned Joey Logano’s No. 22 into the wall and hooked Denny Hamlin’s No. 11 as well to grab the win.

That bitter memory is still fresh in the former No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing crew chief. Chris Gabehart may be the competition director of JGR now, but the aftertaste of Richmond still lingers. That is why he took a harsh jab at Austin Dillon’s new crew chief’s enthusiasm about Goodyear.

Goodyear debuted this year’s short-track racing package in Phoenix with a lot of success. For the Shriner’s Children 400 race, Cup Series teams could use two sets of the softer option tires alongside the primary ones. The results were visible – Ryan Preece used them to drive through the field from 28th to the top ten within the first 27 laps. Then Joey Logano regained track position after his restart violation. Denny Hamlin hounded Christopher Bell till the very last lap on those tires. So Austin Dillon’s new crew chief, Richard Boswell, was happy with these results. The No. 3 RCR driver was also part of a three-team Goodyear tire test on Monday.

Goodyear made the No. 3 team try out 10 different tire combinations during the 12-hour practice session. At the end of it, Richard Boswell declared: “I think that the option tire is fun. It’s fun for me to sit there on top of the box and try to understand how I can maximize my day by being on the same strategy as others because we’re better on reds, or by getting off of strategy.” He was even left wishing for more: “If they want that, then I’m a fan of the option tire being the standard tire, and something even softer being the option.” However, Denny Hamlin‘s former crew chief was lurking in the shadows to deliver a harsh comeback.

As soon as Sirius XM NASCAR posted Boswell’s comments, Chris Gabehart caught wind of it. He reshared the post on X and retorted harshly at the No. 3 crew chief. “Summary: He’s a fan of getting to participate for the win via the Caution Lottery.” This was a cutting reminder of Austin Dillon‘s controversial Richmond victory last August. Dillon held the lead until a caution involving Ryan Preece proved disadvantageous for him. Then he got desperate, dumping both Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin to charge for the victory.

Christopher Bell, a driver at JGR, was in support of Gabehart’s comments, not for the Richard Childress team but about the option tires as a whole. He had a simple explanation. “I hate having two compounds. Where one compound is this significant advantage in the race, I understand that other forms of motorsports do it. F1 does it, Indycar does it. But they also don’t have planned yellow flags at the stage breaks like we do. Or they don’t even have stage breaks, period.”

However, Denny Hamlin disagreed with his ex-crew chief about the option tires. “Me and Dale Jr. believed for the longest time that Goodyear has the keys to NASCAR Cup Series racing, and I think it’s evident that we were right. We got tire falloff, we finally got them to put some soft tires on the car. The results from the racing we’ve seen speak for itself.”

Despite the bitter aftertaste in Chris Gabehart’s mouth, the former crew chief is looking ahead. That is especially because his team is in a golden spot right now.

Rooting for the frontrunners

Joe Gibbs is on cloud nine right now. Across the Cup Series and the Xfinity Series, his drivers have been on fire. Aric Almirola officially retired from full-time racing in 2023 and had no plans to return until two weeks before the Daytona weekend. Yet the veteran already has an Xfinity win up his sleeve at Phoenix Raceway. On the Cup level, Christopher Bell is oozing gold – he clinched his third back-to-back race victory last weekend, a feat unheard of in the Next-Gen era. What is more, Bell has dominated three of the first four races in the 2025 season, making him an indomitable force already.

Denny Hamlin is not far behind in the No. 11 Toyota. Multiple times this year, he had solid chances to charge for the victory. In Phoenix, he came within a hair’s breadth of toppling Christopher Bell – but the latter finished 0.049 seconds ahead. Even then, the effort was massively visible on Hamlin’s part. And his former crew chief let slip his surging emotions about both Bell and Hamlin on X. “And now 🏆🏆🏆@CBellRacing and that 20 team are on it! But my man @dennyhamlin gave him all he wanted for a 1-2 finish! So proud of everyone @JoeGibbsRacing and @ToyotaRacing for such a strong start. More to come!”

Clearly, Joe Gibbs Racing drivers have become forces to contend with in 2025. Let us see what magnificent paths they pave in the upcoming weeks.