"There's just a tremendous amount of respect": Denny Hamlin presses the 'important' facets of his relationship with Chris Gabehart

On his podcast "Actions Detrimental" recently, Denny Hamlin spoke about the importance of the foundation of his relationship with crew chief Chris Gabehart. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver and the crew chief have worked together in the #11 team since 2019.

The driver-crew chief duo have won 23 races since they started working together, including two back-to-back Daytona 500s. Moreover, they've qualified for the playoffs since 2019, proving their partnership is the most fruitful and strongest in the garage. And as per Hamlin, getting to this point was all about starting from the right step.

"I think starting our relationship on the right foot really mattered, in the sense of I gave him the reigns of this race team when he took over. I wasn't the veteran who said, 'Okay, this is the way I've always done things, here's how I like it.' It was more of, 'You just tell me what to do, and I'll go do it.' I think there's just a tremendous amount of respect. [50:20]

He was a racecar driver himself. He knows what it's like to sit in, while not a Cup car, a racecar, and he knows that sometimes data, or analytics, or situations or past history doesn't always paint the correct picture," Denny Hamlin said.

Hamlin said Gabehart trusts him in the car when he's self-analyzing and sending inputs to the pit box.

"So that is an extremely important thing in our relationship, that he trust me and I trust him and he understands when I'm adamant about it, he takes it very seriously and vice versa, goes the other way as well," he added.

After the first playoff race in Atlanta, Denny Hamlin was criticized for his points-oriented strategy. During this time, 23XI Racing, a team he is a co-owner of, also released a public statement, cementing their position against NASCAR's charter proposal.

Because of this, Actions Detrimental's co-host Jared Allen wondered how Hamlin maintained his relationship with Gabehart in such adversity.

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Denny Hamlin opens up on maintaining his relationship with Chris Gabehart through recent adversity

Denny Hamlin claimed on his podcast that as a driver, everyone has to go through this in their career. But one thing that made it not so difficult in his case, was that the #11 team didn't have a lack of speed.

"When you have bad luck, luck being a very loose word, and you're not very fast, that's when you're back there in high 20s and 30s in points. At that point you're just searching for top 15s, top 20s, and praying every week that you don't go multiple laps down. We're not in that position and so know every seven days we have an opportunity to win. So not many people have that opportunity," Denny Hamlin said. [48:20]

Hamlin added they're trying to take it lightly because they're still part of a game. He said that the #11 team is accomplishing a lot, and regardless of the outcome every week, as long as they do their best and give themselves chances of winning more races, it is good.

The JGR veteran claimed that despite being 20 years into his career, knowing he's still capable of being the most dominant car on any given weekend is 'a great feeling.'