Denny Hamlin reflects on winless streak, shock crew chief change going into 2025 NASCAR season

Not only does Denny Hamlin have a lot of sponsor changes this season, but he has a new crew chief and a winless streak, as well. The NASCAR veteran is hoping that he can break the streak, gel with his new crew chief, and maybe convince a few sponsors to jump on board the 11-car in the process.

To have a new crew chief at 44 years old is a pretty major change. Denny Hamlin is coming off a season where he won three races. He arguably could have had more. Nashville and Richmond-2 come to mind.

25 races is a long time. He hasn’t been to victory lane since Dover last April. 10 months is a long time to go without a win. Hamlin said as much when asked by Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports.

“No, it’s been an eternity. It feels like years,” Hamlin said. “But yeah, we started the year off so strong, so fast, and just the speed kind of tapered off as the year went on. You know, we got a little bit more consistent with our finishes once the playoffs started but just didn’t have the raw speed that we had early in the season.”

As far as the Chris Gabehart move to competition director, Denny Hamlin hasn’t spoken about it with his former crew chief. But he believes they will talk about it when the time is right.

“Yeah those conversations will happen and they haven’t happened yet, but we’ll have an opportunity to sit down and discuss where each other’s heads were at during the time. We’re just trying to move on and get 2025 going, and really I focus so much on getting in with Chris Gayle and getting our process down and figuring out how we’re going to approach the season.”

Denny Hamlin has had a long NASCAR career. As he enters this last phase in that journey, he will do it with a brand new crew chief. One who is not as experienced. During the first stint together at the Clash, they did well.

Hamlin credited Gayle with getting his car right. At first, he didn’t like how his car was handling. He couldn’t do what he needed to do to get the speed out of the car. By the time they raced on Sunday night, Hamlin was competing for the race win. He led the second-most laps on the night.

Entering 2025, Hamlin has a lot to prove. NASCAR is a business about results. It doesn’t matter how old you are as long as you can still win races.