A year ago, Joe Gibbs Racing faced a dilemma.
An organization built around winning went winless in the final 18 races last season and failed to put a driver in the Championship 4 for the first time.
A year later, Joe Gibbs Racing has won 13 Cup races, including five in the playoffs. The organization will have Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe compete for a championship against Hendrick Motorsports drivers Kyle Larson and William Byron in Sunday’s race at Phoenix Raceway (coverage begins at 2 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock).
Says title contender Kyle Larson: “I really couldn’t tell you who would be the favorite.”
Key offseason decisions helped propel Joe Gibbs Racing toward a season that could see the organization win its first Cup championship since 2019.
“What I’ve learned — I said the same thing in the NFL — I think pro sports, they change at a rate of about 30% a year, (and) if you’re sitting still, you’re falling behind,” team owner Joe Gibbs said in response to a question from NBC Sports.
“You got to be on the forefront of what’s taking place. So, we kind of felt like some changes were needed for us.”
When last season ended, Gibbs faced questions about how to return to the victory lane more often and challenge for a championship.
“When we talked about it, we laid out some things where we felt like we could really make an improvement,” Gibbs said.
The team wanted to move Chris Gabehart from his role as Hamlin’s crew chief to director of competition. That meant separating the winningest driver/crew chief combination Joe Gibbs Racing had from 2021-24.
Once that move was made, then the organization needed to find a new crew chief for Hamlin.
The plan was to pair Hamlin with Chris Gayle, who had been Ty Gibbs’ crew chief. Hamlin, who was caught off-guard by the crew chief move, needed to say if he would be willing to work with Gayle.
“I was worried,” Hamlin said after his Las Vegas win, reflecting on that pivotal time last offseason. “Chris Gayle’s résumé was not mind-blowing by any stretch of the imagination. He also had a lot of young guys that he had to work with.
“At the time, I mean, Joe gave me essentially 24 hours to say yes or no to it, because Chris had another opportunity with another team in Cup. That was his option. He had an offer. He didn’t want to get drug around.
“So I just told Joe essentially, ‘Do whatever you think is best. I trusted you in the past when we’ve made these kind of decisions. I’ll trust you again.’”
NASCAR will crown its Cup champion Nov. 2 at Phoenix Raceway on NBC and Peacock.
A concern for Hamlin was that at age 44, he has little time left in his Cup career to be productive. Being paired with a new crew chief could take time to develop the proper chemistry and build success.
While Gayle won 37 of 198 races in the Xfinity Series (18.7%) from 2013-22, he had spent his time as a Cup crew chief primarily with with Erik Jones and Ty Gibbs when they were early in their careers. Gayle hadn’t worked with a veteran as Hamlin or someone who had been as successful in NASCAR’s premier series.
Gayle said he didn’t take offense to the concerns Hamlin had.
“I guess because I just don’t worry about that,” Gayle said. “I don’t watch Denny’s podcast. I don’t know if he’s said anything good about me or bad about me and it’s not because I don’t want to watch his podcast. I just figure if he’s got a problem with me — we’ve had issues — he’ll come talk to me face to face and we’ll have that conversation face to face.”
The NASCAR Cup championship race will air Sunday on NBC and Peacock.
It only took them seven races to win, scoring a victory at Martinsville. They won the following weekend at Darlington on the way to a six-win season.
“I really appreciate his leadership,” Hamlin said of Gayle. “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 think that’s very, very important as a driver, is to give the reins to your leader, which is your crew chief, comp director, whoever it might be. No one driver is bigger than the team they drive for or the person that leads their team.
“I wanted to make it very clear to him that he has my respect, he has my confidence, and do what you see is 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. Me and Gabehart had a lot of success. Was nervous 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 kind of our thoughts. That’s why I think we’ve gotten better as a team, as a whole, is it’s sometimes a fresh, new perspective and ideas can teach you something. I think he has.”
Jeff Gordon said William Byron “had the race of his career” Sunday at Martinsville Speedway.
With Gayle moving to Hamlin’s team, Ty Gibbs needed a new crew chief. Along with Briscoe’s arrival — and being paired with James Small — it meant that three of JGR’s four teams would have a new driver/crew chief combination this season.
“We’ve come a long way since the start of the year for sure,” Small said of he and Briscoe. “Just learning each other and Chase getting more acclimatized to our system. We had to change the way we operated a lot.
“We had a guy that was around, willing to come into the shop and work hard with us side by side with us and have some buy in in what we take to the track every week. From that standpoint it’s been very very different. It’s been a learning experience for us.”
Now, Joe Gibbs Racing could be on its way to end his drought and win its sixth Cup title.
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