NASCAR insider: Chris Gabehart moving on from Denny Hamlin 'is a gut punch'

Denny Hamlin, at 44 years old, is heading for a restart of sorts with Joe Gibbs Racing after the race team announced this past Friday that he would have a new crew chief in 2025.

JGR named Chris Gabehart, Hamlin’s crew chief for the last six seasons, competition director. Chris Gayle, who previously sat atop the pit box for teammate Ty Gibbs, will serve as Hamlin’s crew chief next season.

Jeff Gluck of The Athletic chimed in with his thoughts on Gabehart’s exit from the No. 11 team during “The Teardown” podcast, calling it a “gut punch” to Hamlin at this stage in his career.

NASCAR insider gives thoughts on the end of Denny Hamlin, Chris Gabehart partnership

“You’ve heard Denny say on his podcast that Chris Gabehart is the last crew chief he’ll ever have because he intended to finish his career with him,” Gluck said. “He had found a guy who was obviously a good fit and as you suggested, just the mere idea of sort of starting over, especially in this era of the Next Gen car, driver-crew chief communication is the difference maker. All the cars are the same and so you have to find these little things. For a 44-year-old who maybe has I don’t know, two, three years left to start over essentially and try to rebuild that, it seems like a very daunting task…

“There’s a lot of just like man, this guy was at the top of his game crew chief wise and had a driver who still had a couple years left where they could win. And he obviously had stated goals of trying to get to 60 wins, try to get a championship. So, it’s like man, I just think for Denny it’s gotta be a huge gut punch because now you’re looking at this and going man, this is gonna be really, really tough. This journey that I’ve been on just got a whole lot harder.”

Hamlin and Gabehart were a highly successful partnership, winning 22 races together in six seasons. That tied Kyle Larson/Cliff Daniels for the most wins among Cup Series driver/crew chief duos in that span. Hamlin qualified for the Championship 4 three times and finished fifth or better in points in five of six seasons with Gabehart.

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

Hamlin said he was surprised by the news, having no warning ahead of time that a change was imminent.

“It does, but again, they’ve gotta do what’s best for the company. And I think that they’re looking for an improvement on performance from the 54,” Denny Hamlin said Friday. “And they’re looking for an overall performance for all the teams. Because we certainly haven’t won the amount of races as an organization as we should.”

Gabehart, speaking on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, called it “tough” to realize he may have called his last race.

“So, yeah, the conversation with Denny was a tough one,” Gabehart said. “And it’s still tough for me admittedly, to come off the box and realize that maybe I’ve called my last race. 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.”