Kevin Harvick Raises Red Flags Over Chris Gabehart’s Exit from JGR

The commencement of the 2026 season is right around the corner, and Chris Gabehart has yet to finalize his lock in his spot with a team. Gabehart exited JGR in the previous season after being the team’s director of competition. Now, former NASCAR star Kevin Harvick opened up on the 44-year-old’s exit from the team and what’s next for him.

Chris Gabehart had joined Joe Gibbs Racing back in 2012 as a race engineer and moved up the ranks ever since. In 2019, he was promoted to being Denny Hamlin‘s Crew Chief. Gabehart collaborated with Hamlin and achieved 22 Cup victories and back-to-back Daytona victories in 2019 and 2020. As such, the 44-year-old was certainly a crucial figure on the team and helped bring them success.

Kevin Harvick reckoned that Chris Gabehart’s contribution to Joe Gibbs Racing couldn’t be ruled out, as he achieved a lot of success working alongside Denny Hamlin. However, Harvick boldly claimed that the team was just as good with a different crew chief for the No.11 crew. Gabehart could be attributed for Hamlin’s success, but it was all a collaborative effort of the people present in the team.

As such, Kevin Harvick applauded the phenomenal job by Denny Hamlin’s crew, including Chris Gabehart. The 2014 Cup Series Champion asserted that it was an interesting scenario to see how the team cycled out in the absence of Gabehart, and still achieved decent results. Hence, the 44-year-old might not be as missed in the crew, but his work would definitely be remembered by JGR for many years to come as he was an elemental figure for quite some time.

Obviously, he’s been right there, won a lot of races with Denny Hamlin, won a lot of races in other divisions. I think the interesting part, to me, is last I would say the 11 team was as good as they’ve ever been with a different crew chief. I think Chris being on the competition side and still being there helped that 11 team stay together, but those guys did a phenomenal job. Very interesting scenario to see how it’s all cycled out with Gabehart not there anymore.

Kevin Harvick said on the Happy Hour podcast.

Kevin Harvick labels Chris Gabehart as a ‘smart guy’

Chris Gabehart’s exit from JGR did not have a specific reason, as many speculated that it might be because of the disappointments over the season and the title loss. Regardless, Gabehart was one of the smartest people when it came to being a crew chief. As such, with the 44-year-old playing different roles in the team, Kevin Harvick labeled him as a smart person.

Kevin Harvick highlighted that some people could naturally step out of the crew chief role and do something else in the team. Meanwhile, some were fit for working as a crew chief for a team. Hence, Chris Gabehart’s promotion to director of competition, and his subsequent exit meant that the entire situation was very interesting. Despite not knowing the entire situation and how it unfolded that led to Gabehart’s exit, Harvick labeled the former a smart guy for playing his cards right.

I think that there’s some of those crew chiefs that can step out of that box and do things in another role. Some are just built for crew chief, right? So, it is interesting to see how all of this unfolded with Chris Gabehart and everything that happened at Joe Gibbs Racing. Not sure the details of what, why, how it all played out, but Chris is a smart guy.

Kevin Harvick noted.

The 2026 season would be even more interesting as Denny Hamlin would be hungrier for the title win now that he faced a disappointing defeat in the previous season. Moreover, the return of the Chase championship format will certainly make the situation even more exciting. People will closely monitor Chris Gabehart’s situation as he might be looking at a return to the pinnacle of stock racing.

Read More: Kyle Larson Disputes Tony Stewart’s Daytona 500 Claim and Insists “It’s Still Prestigious”

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