$65M Denny Hamlin 'shocked' by Joe Gibbs' decision to shake up leadership at JGR

Joe Gibbs Racing on Friday announced a new Crew Chief for Denny Hamlin. The team has decided to appoint Chris Gayle in charge of the #11 car from the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series onwards. Reacting to the decision, Hamlin, who is worth $65 million (as per Celebrity Net Worth) stated that he was 'shocked' by JGR's decision.

The Joe Gibbs-owned team is all set to bring in Gayle as the #11 car's crew chief after deciding to promote Chris Gabehart, Hamlin's crew chief after the end of the 2024 season. JGR promoted Gabehart to the role of Competition Director.

Joe Gibbs, the owner of JGR, stated that these changes will make the team stronger. The magnanimous move has come after JGR failed in this season's Cup Series despite having all four drivers in the playoffs.

Here's what Hamlin said regarding the move:

"I mean, I, I certainly was shocked by it. That's all," Hamlin told Bob Pockrass of Fox Sports. "There's they've gotta, they gotta do what's best for the company. And I think that they're looking for an improvement on performance on the 54 and they're looking for an overall performance for all the teams. Because, you know, we certainly hadn't won the amount of races as an organization is what we should have."

All four drivers — Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell, Martin Truex Jr., and Ty Gibbs, qualified for the playoffs, but none of them managed to go through to the Championship 4 at Phoenix. The team finished in fifth place in the owner's standings.

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Denny Hamlin shared his thoughts on adjusting with Chris Gayle

In the interview with Pockrass, Denny Hamlin also touched upon how he plans to adjust to his new crew chief, Chris Gayle. Here's what he said:

"Probably the team guys adjusting to Chris, if I had to guess. Because, you know, certainly I'm very familiar with all the A team and certainly the engineers. Our lead engineer has been with me now for lots of years. We had a new secondary engineer come in last year, so he'll be new, then you'll have Chris Gayle."

Denny Hamlin (left) chats with crew chief Chris Gabehart (right) on pit road prior to the Wurth 400 at Dover Motor Speedway (Source: Imagn Images)

"That's new, but I think it's just, you know, what I like about Chris, and what I've heard so far is that he's willing to adapt to the way me and Chris has done it, and also add his own flavor to it as well, which is good, because I think always new perspectives are always good. I know," he added.

Chris Gabehart joined Joe Gibbs Racing in 2012, and seven years later he became the crew chief of Denny Hamlin. On the other hand, Gayle, who is a much senior figure at JGR, joined the team way back in 2003.