After a very successful season on the track in 2025, Joe Gibbs Racing and competition director Chris Gabehart had a falling out. Gabehart is no longer with JGR. Coach Gibbs spoke about the situation earlier this week before Daytona.
Chris Gabehart is largely credited for reviving Denny Hamlin's career. The results spoke for themselves a year ago. Still, for whatever reason, things didn't work with Joe Gibbs Racing.
On Tuesday this week, Coach Gibbs spoke on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. He addressed the departure and how the organization has replaced his absence.
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"After the season, Chris [Gabehart] and I met, and we just decided to go our separate ways," Gibbs said earlier this week on SiriusXM. "Because of that, what we did was, Wally Brown came back, as he had been in that role, and he had been kind of working less time with us, like three days a week. And we brought Wally back, and he's great in that role. We just had our competition meeting yesterday. Then we have four others that work on a committee, and they're focused on week-to-week.
"We have other people that assist them, okay, but they're the ones that have to make our cars go fast. They're focused on week-to-week, going fast. And everybody else in the company, including me, we assist them. We don't direct them, we assist them, and my job is to get them the money it takes, the people it takes, to help them, and help us go fast. So, everybody in the company is kinda working with that committee, that's where we are now."
It sounds like Joe Gibbs Racing has everything under control. However, it does seem concerning that they have replaced one man with an entire committee. We will see what the results look like in 2026 before making judgments. This is one of those moments that could be a future "what if?" and not in a good way for JGR.