Chris Gabehart recalls breaking JGR Competition Director news to Denny Hamlin: 'It's still tough for me'

Earlier today Joe Gibbs Racing surprised the NASCAR world by promoting Chris Gabehart from the pit box to Competition Director. Now, Denny Hamlin is without the crew chief he credits with helping him revive his career.

Of course, in his new role, Gabehart will have a lot of say over all of the cars. That includes Hamlin. But working with a new crew chief in Chris Gayle won’t be an easy task.

Chris Gabehart went on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio today to talk about the new job. He also talked about Denny Hamlin and his reaction.

“Well, there’s no easy way for that to be approached, and you know, that’s a testament to our relationship and what we had helped build together on the 11 car over the last six years. You have to realize that for me that’s not just a conversation with Denny because Denny and I without this team would just be two guys out on a walk and we wouldn’t win anything,” Gabehart said. “It’s the culture that we’ve built inside the entire team. Car chiefs, engineers, mechanics, truck drivers, pit crew, I mean, we really became a very tight-knit group that leaned on each other a lot.”

The 2025 season is going to be different. Will it be to the benefit of an aging Denny Hamlin who only has a few more years to capitalize on his talents and win his first championship?

Chris Gabhart had a tough conversation with Denny Hamlin

During his spot on SiriusXM, Chris Gabehart talked about Hamlin and his take on things. The driver was not made aware ahead of time. Admittedly, even he was shocked by the change.

It doesn’t seem like there will be much fuss about this though. No matter how he feels.

“So, yeah the conversation with Denny was a tough one and it’s still tough for me admittedly, to come off the box and realize that maybe I’ve called my last race,” Gabehart continued. “I’m not going to say I have but maybe I have. And I can certainly tell you that for the first time in 32 years now, going back to my childhood, when we go to Daytona the next race I will not be focused on a singular door number. That is hard for me, that’s a very different role. But you know, where Denny’s concerned I think he gets it.

“We’ve talked at large and understand that one day this was going to come where he would move on to different things and I would have a lot more to contribute outside of a door number. There’s no easy way to have those conversations but in the end he’s a true professional and I think he truly understands this will make all of us better.”

This is a big deal for Denny Hamlin. 23 of his 54 wins have come with Gabehart. Now he has to build another crew chief relationship. That could go really well or really poor. We just won’t know until 2025.