“I love ya”: Denny Hamlin and his Joe Gibbs Racing crew chief share a heartening moment during Pocono race

The relationship between Denny Hamlin and his crew chief Chris Gabehart took an interesting turn at Pocono Raceway last week. NASCAR posted a video on their official X (formerly Twitter) account that showed a hilarious exchange between the driver-chief duo as the Joe Gibbs Racing driver maneuvered his way to a runner-up position during the 400-miler.

The video, captured by the camera inside Denny Hamlin's Toyota Camry, witnessed Hamlin and Chris Gabehart saying those three magical words to each other. Although it was Gabehart who initiated the bromance, Hamlin surely reciprocated.

"You're hitting your shift point," said Chris Gabehart.

"I was strategically doing it," responded Hamlin.

"Okay. I love ya. P13. Doing good," Gabehart said then.

"Copy love you back," Hamlin radioed to his crew chief.

Although Denny Hamlin could not extend his winning record at the Pennsylvanian racetrack last week, the 7-time Pocono winner took home a race-high 54 points; 14 more than even Ryan Blaney, who won the race. In the words of Hamlin himself, it was a "great points day" for the No. 11 team; thanks to Gabehart and his strategy.

"Good points day, but I just care about wins," Hamlin said as reported by Jayski. "I’m trying to get as many wins as I can, so I always tell (Gabehart) to call the race to win it. He tried, and the race didn’t work out in our favor."

Chris Gabehart made the decisive call for a two-tire stop when Ross Chastain brought out the yellow on lap 54. That gave Denny Hamlin the best track position of all the drivers who committed to the pit road at the time. As a result, Hamlin swept Stage 2, holding off Hendrick Motorsports driver, Chase Elliott by about 5 seconds.

"Pocono is one where they almost need to recalibrate it"- Denny Hamlin on Pocono's pit road anomalies

Over 30 drivers were seen speeding during the pre-race roll on the pit road. Unfortunately, four drivers, including Kyle Larson, who came out first off of the pit road, and Chase Elliott, who was close behind, were penalized by NASCAR and sent to the back of the pack.

Elliott, according to Denny Hamlin, had run 90-plus races without getting a penalty for a rule infraction. Therefore, Elliott getting penalized was bound to raise some eyebrows; including those of Denny Hamlin.

Reflecting on the same in a recent episode of Actions Detrimental, the 54-time NASCAR Cup Series race winner said,

"Chase Elliott hasn’t had one in 93 races or something like that; he didn’t make it to 93. That was an unbelievable stat. You always seem to kind of get hit by one somewhere along the way. But he hasn’t. That was the first time."

Reportedly, drivers were trying to figure out where NASCAR was recording high and low speeds on the pit road. Sometimes, there are discrepancies in those readings and oftentimes, the drivers tend to cheat on it. However, with the number of pit stalls at Pocono greater than most other tracks, Denny felt that a recalibration was needed.

"Pocono is one where they almost need to recalibrate it, because it has got more sections than I think any other pit road," Hamlin explained. "It’s like 18, like every two pit boxes is the markers for their timing lines."

Meanwhile, with the postseason just 5 races away, clinching those remaining playoff berths is the goal for several drivers. Therefore, winning is the need of the hour. Tune in to NBC Sports and Peacock to watch the action resume on July 21 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.