Joe Gibbs has claimed that a crucial team switch made ahead of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season could not have worked out better.
Gibbs made the comments in the post-race press conference at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday afternoon after seeing Chase Briscoe take the victory in the YellaWood 500, locking the second Joe Gibbs Racing driver into the Championship 4 at Phoenix.
Denny Hamlin is the other JGR driver to have already advanced, and Christopher Bell could yet make it in too, currently third in the standings ahead of next weekend's elimination race at Martinsville.
It has clearly been a strong campaign for the team, and Gibbs was quizzed on the impact Chris Gabehart has had on that.
Previously, Gabehart was crew chief on Hamlin's No. 11 team, but was switched into the broader role of Director of Competition within the organization ahead of 2024.
Joe Gibbs reflects on key 2025 decision
At the time of the switch, Hamlin made it no secret that he was not happy with losing his crew chief.
However, looking back, given the team's success and Hamlin's own with his new crew chief Chris Gayle, Gibbs believes the move could not have gone any better.
"I think for us, it’s interesting, it’s not one person ever doing it. It’s a group," Gibbs explained when asked if the switch was working out as he intended.
"All of our people that are our management group make decisions. That was a tough one. There was a lot to go through there.
"Chris [Gayle] was in that, too, because he had opportunities to go other places. Could he go to the 11, and would Denny be happy with that? Could they work together? That couldn’t have worked out better.
"It was, again, I just emphasize, it was great people working through that. Denny, that was not something that was easy for him, but he worked his way through it. Chris did the same thing.
"Then Chris Gabehart moving up also has filled that role for us. It was people, you know, looking at it. A group made the decision. Then people followed through. It’s one of those things in an organization.
"It wasn’t easy, I’ll put it that way. But I couldn’t be more pleased with what’s happened."
