Team Owner Joe Gibbs broke down the new structure of JGR in the aftermath of the departure of former Crew Chief and Competition Director Chris Gabehart during a recent interview.
Amidst the ongoing NASCAR lawsuit in early December, rumors surfaced that long-time Joe Gibbs Racing Crew Chief, and at the time, first-year Competition Director, Chris Gabehart had left the team.
At the time, his long-time driver, Denny Hamlin, had nothing to say about the matter, and the story has somewhat tapered off into the 2026 season.
In fact, Gabehart has yet to announce his next venture in NASCAR, though rumors at the time pointed to the ever-improving Spire Motorsports as his likely future home.
On Thursday, Joe Gibbs, the owner of JGR, broke his silence about Gabehart’s departure and the future of JGR’s competition side during an interview with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
Gibbs didn’t go into detail on what happened or how the final discussion went down with Gabehart, saying that “Chris and I met, and we just decided to go, uh, our separate ways.”
With Gabehart gone, Gibbs explained that the team is not replacing Gabehart with a new Competition Director; instead, the team is going with a new approach for the new year.
“Instead of having one person as the competition director, we actually have that committee,” Gibbs said, breaking down that there is now a five-person committee, that includes former Competition Director Wally Brown, and four others.
“We brought Wally back, and he’s great in that role, we just had our competition meeting yesterday, and then we have four others that work on the committee, they’re focused on week to week. We have other people that assist them, but they’re the ones that have to make our cars go fast.” — Joe Gibbs
While Gibbs seems confident in this decision, many fans are pointing out that this committee has some major lifting to do with Gabehart now out of the office.
Last season, JGR improved from six wins, 40 top fives, and 64 top tens to 13 wins, 47 top fives, and 69 top tens, while this could be time and place, it’s clear that Gabehart succeeded in the role, meaning that in 2026, fans will keep this change in their back pocket if JGR drops off in performance this season.
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