Crew chief Gayle taking time to savor his successes with Hamlin

In a weekly meeting ahead of Sunday’s race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the hot seat at Joe Gibbs Racing was occupied by Chris Gayle.

It had nothing to do with performance or the NASCAR Cup Series postseason. In fact, it had nothing to do with anything on-track related for the No. 11 team and its driver, Denny Hamlin. No, this time the attention was on Gayle himself and sharing his story. It’s something Gibbs does to get to know team members' backgrounds, usually the pit department, and since most of those individuals had already been highlighted, it ended up being Gayle’s turn.

“It was so cool to hear his story of how he got started in racing from nothing,” Joe Gibbs Racing competition director Chris Gabehart told RACER. “He had no idea what racing was all about, and now he’s here and gets to race for a championship in Phoenix. There is no one more deserving. His work ethic is huge. He’s a good person. He’s a team player.

“He’s been handed a great opportunity, and look at what he’s doing with it.”

Gayle and Hamlin won for the sixth time Sunday afternoon. It is the most wins Hamlin has had in a season since 2020, when he won seven races. The victory locks the team into the Championship 4 at Phoenix Raceway, a position it's not been in since 2021. And of course, it was Hamlin’s 60th career victory.

But for Gayle, it further solidified his position as the new team leader. Gayle has never been in this position before at the Cup Series level, having never previously advanced out of the first round of the postseason with drivers Erik Jones and Ty Gibbs. And his wins with Hamlin surpass the two victories he earned with Jones.

“It means a lot to me,” Gayle told RACER Sunday night. “I don't know that I could have scripted this part of it any better. I think I mentioned in the offseason that we talked about 60 wins. What did (Hamlin) have, three wins or something, the last couple of years? I'm thinking to myself, ‘Man, this is a great opportunity for me, but I’ve got to step up and win right away.’ … I'm thinking two, three wins. Let's get that going.

“I think it just gets steamrolling where you realize you reset your expectations each time. It's been an incredible year for me. We've talked about this: I've been with rookies, lots of young guys, kind of watching them mature, but not in the position to be able to go and have a season like this where you just capitalize on a lot of them.”

Chris Gabehart (at left) was at the center of Hamlin's program with JGR for years, but 2025 has vindicated the team's decision to shake things up. Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

Gabehart is intimately familiar with what Gayle is doing and who he is doing it with. It wasn’t that long ago that the No. 11 team was under Gabehart’s direction, and his fingerprints are all over it. In the six seasons Gabehart worked with Hamlin, they won 22 races, including two in the Daytona 500 and Southern 500.

But in the days following the 2024 finale, the organization promoted Gabehart and moved Gayle from Gibbs to Hamlin. Hamlin was shocked and caught off guard by the move, but signed off on it before Gayle could take another opportunity. However, Hamlin was still worried because Gayle’s resume was not mind-blowing.

“I really appreciate his leadership,” Hamlin said. “He pushes me as hard as Gabehart did. I made it very, very clear to him that, regardless of my accolades or his, he is the leader, and I will respect whatever he tells me to do. … I wanted to make it very clear to him that he has my respect, he has my confidence, and do what you see fit. Do not be afraid to tell me when you think I need to be fixing something or doing something. I can understand why it would be intimidating for someone like him. Gabehart and I had a lot of success; I was nervous about whether he was going to get the same out of me that those guys did.

“I can confidently say that Gibbs made the right decision in choosing him, giving him the opportunity with me. I think it’s been a very good mix of our thoughts. That’s why I think we’ve gotten better as a team – it’s sometimes a fresh, new perspective and ideas that can teach you something. I think he has.”

Gabehart, as he watched the team celebrate in Las Vegas, couldn’t help but smile.

“This was a move that was considered borderline nuts about 11 months ago,” Gabehart said. “I think if you look across the performance of all four of our teams and certainly the performance of this [No.] 11, I think it’s safe to say the baton was handed off very carefully. It wasn’t thrown, the way it may have looked.”

Phoenix will be another chance for Hamlin to capture what has been an elusive Cup Series championship. Gayle, who has never won a Cup Series title, has an Xfinity Series championship on his resume from 2022 with Ty Gibbs.

Now, more than 20 years into his NASCAR career, Gayle is trying to make sure he enjoys how well things are going. And, he too, found the humor in being the featured speaker in the weekly meeting just days before earning the chance to race for a championship.

“I thought about that on the way in this morning,” Gayle said. “17-year-old Chris Gayle would have killed for this moment, to just be a part of it. Then, to kind of sit here in victory lane after this, the one thing I've said is I'm going to enjoy it. I'm going to soak it in and enjoy the next three weeks, lay everything I can out for Phoenix, and move on.”