“My Head Was Hurting”: Denny Hamlin’s Crew Chief Details Richmond’s Strategic Intensity

Chris Gabehart went into the Cup Series race at Richmond with only a vague game plan in mind. Teams were given seven sets of ‘prime’ tires and two sets of ‘option’ tires and set off on the 400-lap race. Even after practice and qualifying, no crew chief could figure out the right strategy for using the tires. That remained the case until the end.

The No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing team that Gabehart helmed with Denny Hamlin in the seat started the race from the pole. Hamlin raced to finish second at the end of Stage 1 and third at the end of Stage 2. He restarted the final stage on the first set of option tires – with speed being the goal. Gabehart then changed him to prime tires in the green flag pit stops that ensued in Lap 279.

The second set of option tires was saved for any late cautions that might pop up in the final segment of the race. As predicted, the race ended up in an overtime restart during which every driver decided to come in for fresh tires. Chaos ensued with Austin Dillon choosing to wreck his way to victory lane. Hamlin was awarded a second-place finish.

Through all the noise that Dillon generated, Gabehart faced an even harder time with picking the right tire choice. He said after the race, “Richmond races are so tough strategically because of the unique links of the stages. How many sets of tires you get, how much fall off there is. It always sets up a lot of stage dynamics. You throw in option tires on top of that and my head was hurting.”

The difficulty that Gabehart faced with the option tires

When reporters asked him to talk through his tire strategy after the race, he declined to comment just because he needed to decompress from all the pressure. “It was hard. A whole different dimension for sure,” he quipped later.

NASCAR pretty much got what it wanted out of the race – a feasible solution for its short-track issue. But was it all green? No.

Tyler Reddick pointed out in his post-race interview that the option tires were lasting longer than they ought to. This is something that could be resolved with a tiny bit of adjustment to the compound. The majority of the conversation remains positive that the experiment ended up as a huge success.