The highly successful driver-crew chief tandem of Denny Hamlin and Chris Gabehart is no more, with Joe Gibbs Racing announcing their split Friday morning and naming Chris Gayle to lead Hamlin’s No. 11 team for the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season.
Gabehart is moving into the role of competition director, JGR said, a position where he will oversee and work closely with the crew chiefs and engineers on all four of JGR’s Cup teams. JGR also fields cars for drivers Christopher Bell, Chase Briscoe and Ty Gibbs, the grandson of team owner Joe Gibbs.
One of the crew chiefs Gabehart will work with in his new role is Gayle, who led Gibbs’ team the past two years.
🚨 NEWS 🚨
Joe Gibbs Racing has promoted Chris Gabehart to Competition Director.
Chris Gayle will become crew chief for @dennyhamlin and the 11 team.
Crew Chief for the 54 team will be announced at a later date. pic.twitter.com/iooRWcmzJb— Joe Gibbs Racing (@JoeGibbsRacing) November 22, 2024
Gabehart has a sterling reputation within the garage. He is regarded as a crew chief who knows how to find every sliver of speed, devise savvy strategies, and motivate masterfully. In an anonymous survey The Athletic conducted with all 16 playoff drivers in September, Gabehart received eight votes as the crew chief they would most want to have. (Cliff Daniels, Kyle Larson’s crew chief, received the second-most votes with five.)
“He’s super smart and he’s got a personality he’s got to manage,” one driver said. “The way he leads that race team is really impressive.”
“He’s very calculated and understands the big picture,” another said.
Hamlin and Gabehart began working together in 2019, a union that rejuvenated Hamlin’s career and saw him evolve into a perennial championship contender.
Prior to Gabehart leading the No. 11 team, Hamlin failed to win a race during the 2018 season, led a low number of laps (380) and ranked 11th in points. But during his six years with Gabehart, Hamlin ranked second in the series in wins (22) and laps led (6,072), qualified for the Championship 4 playoff finale three times and ranked fifth or better in points in five of six years.
The Hamlin-Gabehart team was the second longest among active driver-crew chief pairings, surpassed only by crew chief Alan Gustafson and Chase Elliott, who’ve been together since 2016. Gabehart is the 10th notable crew chief this offseason to either shift to a different role within their respective organization or join an entirely new team.
JGR tasked the veteran Gayle with filling Gabehart’s big shoes. In addition to his two years with Gibbs, Gayle served as crew chief for Erik Jones for four years.
Last year, Gayle guided Gibbs to a first-ever playoff appearance. This followed Gibbs winning Rookie of the Year honors in 2023, and the 2022 Xfinity Series championship — both of which came with Gayle as his crew chief.
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(Photo of Gayle: Jared C. Tilton / Getty Images)
