Denny Hamlin's crew chief rules out 23XI Racing discussions within JGR amid ongoing NASCAR court case

Chris Gayle, the crew chief of Denny Hamlin, recently spoke about the #11 driver's focus amid the current happenings in his life. Hamlin is the co-owner of 23XI Racing, and the Cup team could potentially lose its charters to NASCAR because of their ongoing court case.

Moreover, Hamlin and his fiancée Jordan Fish are also expecting their third child, because of which a large question mark loomed over the JGR driver's participation at Michigan. But Hamlin not only took part and completed Sunday's (June 9) race, he also emerged as the winner, earning his third win of the season.

Following the race, his crew chief, Chris Gayle was asked how Denny Hamlin has stayed focused on his job with the #11 team. The crew chief claimed he hasn't seen any difference with his driver's focus. Gayle mentioned that he and Hamlin had a weekly schedule and nothing has 'necessarily really changed'.

Having said that, Gayle mentioned the subject about Hamlin's life in NASCAR which was off-topic in the #11 team.

"We don’t sit and talk about the 23XI stuff at all. We talk more about the 11 car, what is going on with it, what he needs with it, what he needs at that specific race, something that happened from the previous race. I haven’t seen any difference," the crew chief revealed during a press conference.

Gayle further admitted that he and Denny Hamlin did have conversations about the baby watch. The crew chief revealed that the discussions were largely about who would fill in for Hamlin, what would need to be changed, the timings, and such.

Chris Gayle looks back on Denny Hamlin's 2025 season so far in terms of speed and finishes

Speaking about the relationship between having fast cars and getting good finishes, Chris Gayle claimed he looks mostly at speeds. Denny Hamlin's crew chief mentioned that except for North Wilkesboro, the #11 team has had fast cars across all races this season.

It's worth mentioning that apart from his three wins, Denny Hamlin has had four top-five finishes this season, two of which are second place results.

"You have a motor failure at Texas. You have a clutch failure. Those things, I mean, are not really within my control. There’s some TRD. There’s some collaboration there, but it’s not fully in our control. I don’t feel too bad about that. If we were slow, ran bad all day, the motor blew, I mark that down as we have to work on our car. I don’t think that’s been the case anywhere outside of North Wilkesboro this year," Gayle described.

The crew chief claimed that if the #11 team manages to eliminate such issues, they'd break through more often.