Hamlin NASCAR plans ROCKED after major 2025 announcement

NASCAR star Denny Hamlin's preparations for the 2025 season have been rocked after a major team announcement.

Hamlin drives the #11 car for Joe Gibbs Racing in the Cup Series who have announced that Chris Gabehart — the crew chief of the #11 car — is set to become the team's competition director.

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This means that Gabehart will be leaving his position as head of Hamlin's team after six seasons of being in the role, with Chris Gayle set to crew chief the #11 moving forward into next season.

Despite a championship eluding them, Hamlin and Gabehart had won 22 races together, which perhaps explains why Hamlin could not help but let his disappointment be felt when talking to the media.

“I certainly was shocked,” Hamlin told the press. “That’s all I’ll say.”

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Hamlin admits shock at decision

Fortunately, Hamlin did open up on the matter further, explaining that the news had come as a shock to him, but that he was looking at the big picture as he tried to adjust.

"The first few days was a shock, but I’m moving on,” Hamlin explained.

"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.

"They feel like this is the change they need to [make] to get that and that the 11 team will benefit from those changes.”

This is not the only big change Hamlin has faced heading into the 2025 season.

It was announced earlier this month that Hamlin and FedEx would be ending their 19-year partnership having worked together since 2025.

READ MORE: Hamlin ends 19-year NASCAR partnership with SHOCK announcement

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