NASCAR insider: Chris Gabehart 'is going to thrive' in new role with Joe Gibbs Racing

A NASCAR insider believes Chris Gabehart will do big things in his new role with Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) in 2025. On The Teardown podcast, Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic explained why it’s good for Gabehart to be JGR’s competition director.

“To put Joe Gibbs Racing as a whole to put Chris Gabehart as a competition director, really smart move,” Bianchi said. “They struggled last year really in the second half of the year. The 20 team Christopher Bell was the exception. We didn’t have a lot of performance from all three of the other JGR cars really consistently throughout the year.

“They need to be better, and if you look at the role that Chris is going into, they really didn’t have somebody kind of in that specific role. …They had various people kind of doing the different things associated with it, it wasn’t one person. It makes sense that you would put Chris in this role. I think he’s going to thrive, and I think he’s going to make the organization better.”

Chris Gabehart reacts to new role at Joe Gibbs Racing

Gabehart was the crew chief for the No. 11 team (Denny Hamlin) for the last six seasons. With the move, Chris Gayle who has been the crew chief for the No. 54 team (Ty Gibbs) will now be Denny Hamlin’s crew chief.

“I am very thankful for the opportunities that Joe Gibbs Racing has continued to provide me for my entire tenure here and cannot say enough about how much I have enjoyed and appreciated my time with Denny and the entire 11 team,” Gabehart said in a press release. “They have all taught me so much about not only how to race at the top of the NASCAR Cup Series, but also, how to lead a great group of talented professionals. In my next opportunity, I am as excited as I have ever been to work with all our talented drivers, crew chiefs, teams and partners to help focus all our efforts towards making 2025 one of the best seasons Joe Gibbs Racing has ever had.”