Chris Gabehart reveals his ‘tough’ conversation with Denny Hamlin as he vacates the crew chief helm amid JGR’s silly season shakeup 

NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin's former crew chief Chris Gabehart recently shared a difficult conversation with Hamlin following the change in his role at Joe Gibbs Racing. Gabehart was recently announced as the Competition Director at JGR, after 6 years of being the crew chief for the #11 car.

Gabehart assumed the crew chief role for Joe Gibbs Racing's #11 team in 2019 and started with a win in the Daytona 500. Since then, the pair have brought several laurels for JGR, including 22 race wins. However, they could not secure the coveted Cup Series title.

Talking with SiriusXM NASCAR channel, Denny Hamlin's former crew chief shed light on his conversation with the JGR driver about his role change in the organization. Gabehart believes that their success wasn't just a two-man effort, but the collective result of the whole team. He said:

"You have to realize that for me, that's not just a conversation with Denny because Denny and I, without this team, would just be two guys out on a walk and we wouldn't win anything. It's the culture that we built inside the entire team. Car chiefs, engineers, mechanics, truck drivers, pit crew, I mean we really became a very tight-knit group that leaned on each other a lot."

"So, yeah, I mean, the conversation with Denny was a tough one and it was, you know, it's still tough for me admittedly to come off the box and realize that, you know, maybe I've called my last race[...]There's no easy way to have those conversations. But in the end, he's (Denny Hamlin) a true professional. And I think he truly understands this will make all of us better," he added.

Meanwhile, Chris Gayle has been announced as Hamlin's new crew chief for the #11 Toyota Camry XSE in the Cup Series.

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"I certainly was shocked": Denny Hamlin comments on Gabehart's departure from the #11 team

Denny Hamlin, who pilots the #11 Toyota for JGR, is one of the most successful drivers in the current grid. Despite not having a Cup Series title under his belt, the 44-year-old is only second to Kyle Busch in the list of maximum race wins in the NASCAR Cup Series.

Chris Gabehart broke the news about his new role as Competition Director at Joe Gibbs to Hamlin. This would mean that the former #11 crew chief would be responsible for the performance of all the JGR Toyotas, and not just Hamlin's. Hearing of the news from Chris Gabehart, the three-time Daytona 500 winner said (via Bob Pockrass on X):

"I certainly was shocked by it[...]They've got to do what's best for the company. 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. It's what we should have."

Meanwhile, Gabehart's replacement Chris Gayle had a role to play in Ty Gibbs' Xfinity triumph in 2022 and would be hoping for similar results with the #11 driver.