“I wanted to win for him [Chris Gayle].” After winning in Martinsville, Denny Hamlin confessed his growing relationship with his new crew chief. Having been part of Joe Gibbs Racing for two long decades, the No. 11 Toyota driver is part of a legacy of excellence. Last weekend, he added JGR’s 218th victory, which also marked Hamlin’s sixth grandfather clock. In doing so, the veteran overcame the storm of doubts that tormented him during the off-season.
Last year in November, Joe Gibbs dropped a piece of news that crashed down on Denny Hamlin. Gibbs promoted Chris Gabehart, Hamlin’s crew chief for 6 seasons, to competition director. That left Hamlin a confused and chafing mess as he scrambled for a solution. However, now he admits that the situation was easier to adapt to than he thought.
Denny Hamlin went with the flow
Well, Denny Hamlin was not the only one taken aback by the crew chief shuffle. Joe Gibbs’ decision led to a storm of controversy among the NASCAR community. Hamlin and Chris Gabehart had attained 22 race wins together, edging close to a possible championship. However, everyone doubts a legend’s decision sometimes. Gibbs occupies Hall of Fame spots both in NASCAR (2020) and Pro Football (1996) – he was the former head coach of the NFL team Washington Redskins (1981-1992). So Gibbs’ executive decision-making power already has a resume of excellence. That was heavily evident in Martinsville, where Hamlin broke a 10-year Martinsville drought with his new crew chief, Chris Gayle.
In a recent episode of The Dale Jr Download, Denny Hamlin confessed how a cloud of skepticism hovered over him when the change was announced: “There was a period there where I certainly was not happy with Joe Gibbs Racing or decisions that they make in the off-season kind of without talking to me at all about it. But you know, I gotta trust that they got the bigger picture in mind… Sometimes you gotta make those changes… I certainly was worried. I felt like, ‘Okay, I don’t want to start over, I’m too late in my career to start over.’ And I just wasn’t really excited about that.”
Denny Hamlin is 44 years old. He knows he doesn’t have many shots at glory anymore, and shifting personnel at such a time can be very difficult to cope with. Take a look at Jimmie Johnson; he won seven championships with Chad Knaus by his side and set the Cup Series alight in the 2000s. However, after their first winless season together in 2018, Knaus was moved to William Byron’s #24 car as Johnson switched to Cliff Daniels (Kyle Larson’s current crew chief). Johnson did not win a single race after this switch and retired in 2022. Such thoughts must have lingered on Hamlin’s mind, but after picking up his first win on Sunday, the #11 JGR driver conceded a 5-word verdict, “I’m happy with the change.”
In 2022, Chris Gayle guided Ty Gibbs to the Xfinity Series championship. Given his impressive resume, Denny Hamlin wanted to give him a chance. “I slept on it for about a week or so, and was like, I’m going to make the best of it… I’m going to be a professional here and I’m going to make sure that doing my job as a driver to give Chris Gayle a fair opportunity to prove himself in the Cup Series. When you look back at it,” Hamlin continued. “My relationship with Gabehart was strained for a while, and it’s starting to get back on the right track. I’m starting to build that relationship with Chris Gayle. My faith in him after just 2 weeks really was unwavered. I found that this was going to be a pretty seamless transition for him and the 11 team.”
The win on Sunday was a testament to the #11’s resilience. Despite being embroiled in a lawsuit against NASCAR with his team, 23XI Racing, and having sponsorship troubles to start the season, Hamlin did not yield. Progressive Insurance stepped in to help him, and Chris Gayle proved that sometimes, all you need is a small change to produce big results. Hamlin didn’t just win at Martinsville; he dominated, leading 274 laps and ending with a 4-second lead.
As Denny Hamlin confessed to feeling content, so did his colleague. The Martinsville race left Chris Gayle a nervous wreck but a happy JGR employee at the same time.
A chip off his shoulder
Well, when the NASCAR community begins to question your new designation, you tend to feel a lot of pressure. Chris Gayle took the reins of the crew chief role from Chris Gabehart, somebody with whom Denny Hamlin had a solid rapport. Contrary to Gabehart’s 22-race winning resume, Gayle had two wins to his credit. Those came at Daytona International Speedway (2018) and Darlington Raceway (2019) with Erik Jones behind the wheel. After he moved into JGR with Ty Gibbs in 2023, Gayle entered a drab streak. Gibbs cracked the 2024 playoffs – but besides that, he could not scrape Victory Lane. So when Hamlin was leading at the Cook Out 400 race, the nerves were high in the No. 11 pit stall.
Chris Gayle confessed that his entire team was feeling nervous. “I was laughing and joking on the intercom. With the engineer (Chris Minogue) next to me, who was shaking his feet, and the people behind us, I’m like, ‘We need a mass damper on here. Somebody is going to get rocked off the box.’” But by the end of the race, they were ecstatic in celebrations – and Gayle was drenched in relief. “They’ve won races previous to me, so if anybody was going to have pressure on them, it was me. I think anytime you have change, there’s that concern… It’s great that I feel like we’ve worked well together, but for sure, to get that first win out of the way and get it done early probably relieves them all (and) myself included.”
Evidently, it all worked out for Denny Hamlin and his team. As the 2025 Cup Series season progresses, let us see what magic they conjure next. Do you think Chris Gayle can guide Hamlin to the elusive Cup Series Championship? Let us know in the comments!
The post “I Was…Not Happy”- Denny Hamlin Publicly Concedes Joe Gibbs’ Supremacy With Heartfelt 5-Word Claim Despite Early Skepticism appeared first on EssentiallySports.
