Denny Hamlin’s crew chief Chris Gabehart thought No. 11 team’s strategy fell short until caution

“I love the strategy there at the end. With 20 to go, I thought for sure we were going to win. Then you get to a guy as good as Joey Logano, and he was saving some stuff. He kind of checked us up. I was like, ‘Man, thought we had this.’ But we were going to run third. We were done. Then the caution comes out, and I perked right back up,” Gabehart told SiriusXM after the event. “I know the work this team puts into everything on pit road. Everything on, all of it.

“I mean, it takes a lot of things, not just Denny doing his job, but the pit crew doing their job, and the team getting the set up on it they need to go out there and do that. Just proud of the effort. Proud of the way we won.”

Alas, Richmond was a total team win for Denny Hamlin, Chris Gabehart and the No. 11. They’ll be looking to continue their run of success as the Cup Series stays in Virginia this weekend, taking the campaign to Martinsville.

Richard Petty says Denny Hamlin’s pit crew won him race at Richmond

One person who agrees with the sentiment that Denny Hamlin’s pit crew led him to victory in this past Sunday’s Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond Raceway is seven-time Cup Series champion Richard Petty.

During the final pit stop ahead of overtime, Hamlin sat P3 behind Martin Truex Jr. and Joey Logano. Hamlin came off pit road P1, a testament to his pit crew which is off to a dominant start in 2024. That final pit stop changed the entire race, as Hamlin held off Truex, Logano and Kyle Larson to pick up his 53rd-career victory and second of the season.

Giving his Petty Race Recap for Richmond, Petty said he wasn’t a fan of the race coming down to overtime, but acknowledged that Hamlin’s pit crew won him the race.

“That’s what wound up winning the race,” Petty said. “I don’t like to see a race where the guys have run the whole race, made their pit stops, done their strategy, had it all figured out, they’re out there leading the race or running fifth or whatever and then all of a sudden, they have a two-lap race. 

“We sat there and watched 398 laps and it was just a lost cause more or less. And then they just mix them all up. But like you said, it wound up that the pit crew got the 11 [Hamlin] in front. The 11 was good, had a good second, third or fourth-place car, but the deal was when the chips were down, they got the job done.”