The tale of the camaraderie between Denny Hamlin and his prior crew chief, Chris Gabehart is known to all. However, the news of a change of crew chief came up as a major shocker for everyone. While the Gabehart and Hamlin duo was able to win 22 races over six years, it did not lead Hamlin to that elusive championship victory.

While Hamlin’s partnership with Gabehart comes to a close, his new crew chief seems as motivated as ever. Having worked with Ty Gibbs in the past and with an Xfinity Championship under his belt, the hopes are high for success with the #11 car.

Hamlin to pair up with Chris Gayle for his upcoming 2025 run

Denny Hamlin will now be working alongside Chris Gayle. This news came as a major shocker after Gabehart had a change of roles and was moved up to the position of Competition Director at Joe Gibbs Racing. This left the position of Hamlin’s crew chief empty which was then filled in with Chris Gayle. Gayle has been in the industry for quite some time now and he was last seen working with none other than Ty Gibbs for the last two seasons. Although the pair did not end up winning a race, he was able to claim the Rookie of the Year Award in 2023. 

Chris Gayle seemed to be quite candid about this new role and how he is looking forward to working with Denny Hamlin. Speaking of how the entire thing happened, Gayle said, “It absolutely is a great honor, a great opportunity for me. You know it just all came down to kinda last week when we knew that Chris Gabehart was moving to competition director role and obviously this opened up a position you know in the No. 11 team and I think it really just came down to who do we have, who can we get and what makes our race team the strongest overall. I think if you look in from Denny’s perspective, he is been around for a lot. He has that team, a lot of years under his belt, he is ready to compete”.  

Gayle spoke on the fluidity of the change in terms of being well-versed with JGR’s culture and how that facilitates a smooth takeover. He said, “You know, moving me over the 11 team, kind of giving me the role that Gabehart had and kind of keeping the rest of the team intact, you know, allows that to happen. It allows continuity to be there where I understand how JGR works. I understand the processes of the 11 team, the processes of JGR team in general and how all the tools work”. 

While some fans are still in shock about how this change will culminate, it does seem like this role reversal was almost on the cards. JGR went on an 18-race winless streak to end the season and failed to make the Championship 4 as well. The JGR team made an official statement regarding the change.

It said, “Chris Gabehart will now be an asset across all four of our teams as competition director and we thought it was important to have him transition into his new role immediately. Chris Gayle will bring his own perspective to the 11 team while also maintaining the consistency and continuity they have developed with Denny over the past several years.” While these changes are official, it is yet to be announced who will be taking over as Ty Gibbs crew chief for next season.

Denny Hamlin was left in the dark about his crew chief shuffle but remains hopeful for 2025.

Hamlin opens up about his crew chief change 

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The news of Gabehart’s promotion and Gayle taking up the same position came as quite a shocker. Reacting to the same, Hamlin said, “ I mean, I, I certainly was shocked by it. That’s all”.  

Hamlin also shared that he believed a lot of the decision has to do with improving the performance of Ty Gibbs and the No. 54 team. He said, “They gotta do what’s best for the company. And I think that they’re looking for an improvement on performance on the 54 and they’re looking for an overall performance for all the teams. Because, you know, we certainly hadn’t won the amount of races as an organization is what we should have”.

Gayle has won two Cup Series races, 37 Xfinity Series wins, and the 2022 Xfinity Series Championship with Ty Gibbs. While he joined JGR in 2003 as an engineer, he worked his way up to crew chief by 2013 with the Xfinity team and now sees his toughest task yet. Do you think that the new Hamlin-Gayle pairing will be able to achieve what Gabehart-Hamlin could not?