Denny Hamlin's Team Makes 'Surprising' Change For 2025 Season

Big changes are coming for Denny Hamlin in 2025 with the biggest by far being a surprising change to his crew chief.

According to NASCAR insiders Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic, Hamlin will have Chris Gayle as his crew chief starting next year, taking over for Chris Gabehart. The decision was made by the Joe Gibbs Racing team and appeared to have been done despite objections from Hamlin. In a discussion about the news on The Teardown, both Gluck and Bianchi remarked at how shocked and surprised they were that Hamlin would be parting ways with Gabehart given how respected he is.

“Pretty surprising,” Gluck called the news. “You would think that Denny would have way more heads up or way more say at this point in his career with all he’s sort of earned and done. For him to be blindsided, it sounds like is kind of… He said it was a shock.”

“I was really shocked,” Bianchi said. “When I heard the news, I was like, ‘Wow, okay.’ The relationship between Denny and Chris is phenomenal. There’s a lot to break down here honestly. I went back last year to our anonymous poll we did with the playoff drivers, and I looked at it. Eight of the 16 drivers picked Chris Gabehart as a crew chief they wanted, which I thought was remarkable...

“Easily, easily one of the most, if not the most respected and almost revered crew chief in the garage. Really smart, knows how to build fast race cars, great strategist, great motivator. He is almost a perfect crew chief in a lot of ways.”