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Denny Hamlin: Martinsville win was 'super gratifying,' wanted to win to silence Chris Gayle doubters

Brian Jones Profile Picby:Brian Jones•03/31/25•

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Denny Hamlin (42)
Mar 30, 2025; Martinsville, Virginia, USA; NASCAR Cup Series driver Denny Hamlin (11) does a burn out around the track at the Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Speedway. Mandatory Credit: Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images

Denny Hamlin was happy to win the NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville for himself and crew chief Chris Gayle. On the Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin talked about winning his first Cup Series race with Gayle.

“Certainly, winning 10 years ago at that track, being that big of a gap. It’s not like we’ve been crap for the last 10 years. We’ve just always been right there on the cusp and just didn’t do it,” Hamlin said. It’s super gratifying from that standpoint, but this is probably one of the very few wins that I was more happy for my crew chief Chris Gayle.

“I think that he’s had a tough go having these young guys and try to help mentor them, also crew chief them and also help the engineers. That’s a tough job when you have a young driver and you’re trying to figure out what’s the best way to build the car, to optimize speed but yet make it to wherre they can drive it. It’s hard to do. I think that I’ve tried really this year to make his job as easy as possible by just straight giving him whatever information he needs to make the car the best it can. I wanted to do it more to silence his doubters more than necessarily mine.”

Chris Gayle talks about working with Denny Hamlin

Chris Gayle his in his first year as Hamlin’s crew chief. He replaced Chris Gabehart, who was promoted to the competition director for Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR). Gayle has a lot of experience as crew chief, having held that position in the Xfinity Series and Cup Series since 2013. Last year, Gayle was the crew chief for Ty Gibbs, and the team earned eight top-five finishes, 12 top 10s and two pole awards.

“It’s wildly different,” Gayle told reporters after the race on Sunday when asked about working with Denny Hamlin after spending time with Ty Gibbs. “Even if you go before Ty Gibbs, I had Erik Jones, who was a rookie. Both of those instances, I’m going through it with them for the first time. They’ve never seen anything before there. I’m trying to be the guy who reminds them of every possible scenario that can happen, looking at the data with them, trying to get them up to speed.”