NASCAR insider unwraps Denny Hamlin’s “reality” after he loses his ‘almost perfect’ right-hand man

NASCAR insider Jordan Bianchi opened up about Denny Hamlin's reality, as his "right-hand man" Chris Gabehart will no longer call the shots for the #11 team. Bianchi outlined that the Joe Gibbs Racing driver, aged 44, is at a stage where he doesn't have much runway left to claim his first NASCAR Cup Series title.

On Friday, November 22, JGR announced before the annual banquet ceremony that Gabehart had been promoted to the position of team competition director, and Ty Gibbs' former crew chief Chris Gayle will fill the vacated seat.

Following the silly season shakeup, Jordan Bianchi outlined Hamlin's reality about how Gabehart's departure would affect the Virginia native's NASCAR future.

"He is almost a perfect crew chief in a lot of ways. And when you're thinking where's Denny Hamlin at in his career, I'm not calling Denny old because we're the same age, but the reality is the reality and he's 43 (*44). You don't have a lot of runway left on your career. You're kind of in a 'win now' mode," Bianchi said (0:26).

Bianchi then talked about Hamlin's 'frustration' as he seemingly doesn't have much time before thoughts of retirement would start bothering him.

"I can understand Denny Hamlin's frustration and his anger. It's like, 'I got the best crew chief in the garage, I know we didn't have maybe the best year as an organization but we were pretty good, and we had a lot of things go against us last year. I don't want to have to work and figure out a new crew chief and all of that that goes into that, and maybe it works out maybe it doesn't. I know what I got, I don't have many years left,'" the NASCAR insider said (0:48).

Hamlin and Gabehart's pairing has claimed 22 Cup wins, of which 13 came during the 2019 and 2020 seasons. However, since debuting full-time in 2006, the JGR driver hasn't bagged a title yet. Even though he has a decorated resume of 54 wins, three Daytona 500 victories, and three Southern 500 wins, to name a few, the void of a title is yet to be filled.

Denny Hamlin makes his "shocked" feelings known about Gabehart's exit

The following week after Denny Hamlin ran his penultimate race of the 2024 season at the Phoenix Raceway, he was informed, in a meeting at JGR headquarters, that Gabehart had climbed the ladder to become the competition director. Hamlin's former crew chief has been with the #11 Toyota driver since 2019, and the team's decision was a shocker for the veteran driver.

“The first few days was a shock, but I’m moving on. There’s nothing I can do to change anything that happened, and JGR is doing what they feel is best for them and I totally understand that. And if all of our program gets better, the 11 car’s gonna run better as well, right? And I think that all of us, all the teams, knew that we needed to have better results than what we had at the end of the year," Hamlin said via NASCAR.

Hamlin's upcoming crew chief Chris Gayle shares history with the driver. The duo ran together in eight Xfinity Series races and secured the 2016 Charlotte spring race. It's worth mentioning that Gayle has been with JGR for the past 20 years and knows about the organization from the inside out. Nonetheless, the majority of his crew chief career in the Cup Series has been with rookie drivers.

That being said, Denny Hamlin believes the change would be welcoming for his future crew chief and that JGR's decision was probably the easiest choice as Gayle was already a part of the Cup Series program.