{"id":209591,"date":"2025-09-08T06:58:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T06:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/209591\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T06:58:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T06:58:12","slug":"denny-hamlins-st-louis-win-puts-him-in-elite-club-with-nascar-legend-bobby-allison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/209591\/","title":{"rendered":"Denny Hamlin\u2019s St. Louis Win Puts Him in Elite Club With NASCAR Legend Bobby Allison"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"https:\/\/img.particlenews.com\/image.php?url=2YFu5J_14VQ1hjl00\"<\/p>\n

Many thought Denny Hamlin\u2019s 2025 season might not be his best. With longtime sponsor FedEx pulling its support and his successful crew chief Chris Gabehart leaving the #11 Joe Gibbs Racing team to become competition director, expectations were modest.<\/p>\n

But Hamlin has turned those doubts into his strongest next-gen car performance yet. Working with a new crew chief has allowed him to reach a rare NASCAR milestone that only legend Bobby Allison had achieved before him.<\/p>\n

How Did Chris Gayle Help Hamlin Achieve What Gabehart Never Could?<\/p>\n

When Gabehart got promoted, Chris Gayle stepped into his role with the #11 team. Gayle brought impressive credentials from his time as crew chief for the #54 Joe Gibbs Racing team, plus his extensive Xfinity Series experience, including 37 wins and the 2022 championship with Ty Gibbs. Team owner Joe Gibbs was confident in Gayle\u2019s ability to lead the #11 operation.<\/p>\n

Remember what coach Gibbs had said<\/a> while making this change: \u201cWe have a lot of pride in the depth of talent we have throughout our organization. Chris Gayle will bring his own perspective to the 11 team while also maintaining the consistency and continuity they have developed with Denny [Hamlin] over the past several years.\u201d They delivered on that promise throughout the 2025 season.<\/p>\n

Through 28 races, Hamlin has collected 12 top-five finishes and 15 top-tens, along with five victories. Those numbers make him the season\u2019s winningest driver, which is remarkable for a new driver-crew chief partnership.<\/p>\n

NASCAR journalist Toby Christie said this success has put Hamlin in exclusive company. He\u2019s now only the second driver to win five races in a season while working with four crew chiefs. The first driver to accomplish this feat was 1983 Cup champion Allison.<\/p>\n

In his recent X post, Christie wrote,<\/a> \u201cWith today\u2019s win, his fifth of the season, @DennyHamlin became just the second driver in recorded #NASCAR Cup Series history to achieve a five-win season with four different crew chiefs. He joins NASCAR Hall of Famer Bobby Allison, who also accomplished the feat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which Crew Chiefs Helped Hamlin Reach This Historic Milestone?<\/p>\n

Hamlin first achieved five or more wins in a season with crew chief Mike Ford in 2010, when he captured eight victories. That dominant campaign set the bar for a recurring achievement across multiple partnerships.<\/p>\n

Joe Gibbs Racing replaced Ford with Darian Grubb for the 2012 season. Grubb had guided Tony Stewart to his 2011 Cup Championship, and JGR hoped for similar magic. They got it, with Hamlin securing five wins that year\u00a0during another strong campaign.<\/p>\n

The Florida native\u2019s next five-win seasons came with Gabehart as his crew chief. First, in 2019, there were six victories; then, in 2020, there were seven wins. Those back-to-back seasons established their partnership as one of NASCAR\u2019s most successful combinations.
Now Gayle becomes the fourth crew chief to join this exclusive list, completing Hamlin\u2019s remarkable achievement.<\/p>\n

With the success this duo has enjoyed so far, there\u2019s no telling where they\u2019ll finish when 2025 concludes. Eight races remain on the schedule, allowing Hamlin to break his personal single-season record of eight wins. The momentum is certainly there for something special.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Many thought Denny Hamlin\u2019s 2025 season might not be his best. With longtime sponsor FedEx pulling its support…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":209592,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[104,115075,728,1406,10814,86770,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-209591","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-denny-hamlins-st-louis-win-puts-him-in-elite-club-with-nascar-legend-bobby-allison","10":"tag-local-news","11":"tag-nascar","12":"tag-newsbreak","13":"tag-pfsn","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}