Lost in the broadcast changes, Charter transfers, and driver changes is the Crew Chief shuffle of the 2025 NASCAR Silly Season. This offseason saw several major Crew Chief changes for key drivers. So, what are five key pairings to look out for in 2025?
Last year was another successful season between Denny Hamlin and Chris Gabehart. The pairing of six seasons stacked up three wins, 12 top-fives, and 18 top-tens for a finish of eighth in points.
Despite this, the two struggled late in the season, resulting in changes at Joe Gibbs Racing. Gabehart will be the competition director at Joe Gibbs Racing in 2025, and Hamlin will now work with longtime JGR Crew Chief Chris Gayle.
In his six seasons in the Cup Series, Gayle has two wins calling the shots for drivers like Erik Jones and Ty Gibbs at JGR. As a highly successful crew chief at the Xfinity level, most expect him to break out with the right pairing. However, it’s been a long time since Gayle has been to victory lane with Erik Jones in 2019.
While Hamlin could be the right driver for Gayle, it’s hard to replicate the success of a pairing like Gabehart and Hamlin. This is a very risky change to make for a veteran driver, but throughout his career, Hamlin has prevailed.
Chase Briscoe is moving on to take over for one of the best drivers of the past decade. With Martin Truex Jr’s retirement and Stewart-Haas Racing’s closure, Briscoe takes on the No. 19 with Crew Chief James Small in 2025.
Small has eight wins, all with MTJ, since his full-time Cup Series debut in 2020. On the driver side, Briscoe has failed to meet expectations since his 2021 Cup Series debut with SHR. In the 2020 Xfinity Series season alone, Briscoe had nine wins, 16 top-fives, and 22 top-tens. In his four full-time Cup Series seasons, Briscoe only has 13 top-fives in total.
While some could credit Small’s success with being paired with a driver like MTJ, it’s time for him to prove himself as a Crew Chief. Briscoe is by no means a bad driver; however, at a stable, winning organization, he needs to make up for lost ground in his career.
A quiet yet crucial change this offseason is 23XI Racing swapping veteran Crew Chief Bootie Barker for former Truck Series Crew Chief Charles Denike. In 2025, Denike will call the shots for the team’s flagship No. 23 and driver Bubba Wallace.
Barker was a longtime Cup Series Crew Chief with two wins in his 592 races on top of the pit box. Unfortunately, since joining Bubba Wallace in 2022, the duo has struggled to win races despite consistently running in a solid points position.
While the fan-favorite Barker moves to a new role for 23XI Racing, Denike makes the jump from trucks to Cup. Denike had a breakout with Christian Eckes in 2023, and the two followed that up in 2024 with four wins, 15 top-fives, and 22 top-tens in the 23 races season.
Much like Eckes, Wallace, with a new contract from 23XI in hand, could have his long-awaited breakout year in 2025.
While some teams focused on the drivers made available by the closure of SHR, others, such as the improving Spire Motorsports, were focused on their staff. In perhaps their best signing, Spire hired former NASCAR Cup Series Champion Crew Chief Rodney Childers to call the shots for Justin Haley in 2025.
Childers’ resume is as impressive as that of any other Crew Chief in NASCAR history. From 2014 to 2023, Childers teamed with future Hall-of-Famer Kevin Harvick, scoring 37 wins and numerous top-five points finishes. Much like other SHR alums, Childer’s statistical falloff matches the falloff of SHR in performance.
Spire will pair Childers with one of the best underdog stories of 2024, Justin Haley. In a driver swap, Spire brought Haley on to replace Corey LaJoie following the Bristol Night Race. This pairing is a great story, and with the improving on-track product of Spire, it will be one to watch in 2025.
Of all the new crew chief and driver pairings debuting in 2025, there is a notable reunion happening at RFK Racing.
Veteran Crew Chief Jeremy Bullins departs Wood Brothers Racing to call the shots for Brad Keselowski at his team, RFK Racing. These two first joined forces at Team Penske in 2020, winning four races and finishing second in points. After a tough 2021, Keselowski left Penske while Bullins welcomed rookie Austin Cindric to the Cup Series.
Since their split up, Keselowski has struggled with himself while his team continued to grow. He finally broke through at Darlington last spring with his first win since leaving Bullins. Last season was Brad and now former Crew Chief Matt McCall’s best yet; however, it was time for a split up after a tough end to the season.
Since Keselowski left, Bullins started by winning a Daytona 500 with Cindric in 2022. However, he found himself bumped to Wood Brothers Racing midway through 2023, where he and driver Harrison Burton floundered. However, much like Keselowski, Bullins finally broke his losing streak last season at Daytona.
These two have had different yet similar routes since their “breakup.” Perhaps a reunion is the next step for both the driver and crew chief.
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