Dale Earnhardt Jr. reacts to Chris Gabehart and Joe Gibbs Racing parting ways

It was reported last week by Jenna Fryer of The Associated Press that Chris Gabehart had parted ways with Joe Gibbs Racing. Gabehart spent the 2025 season as the team’s director of competition, his first season in that role.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. recently reacted to the news of Gabehart’s departure from JGR. Earnhardt called it a “big loss,” one he can make much sense of.

“It’s a big loss for JGR and it kind of makes you wonder what the general temperature is when a guy like that’s gonna leave the building,” Earnhardt said on Tuesday’s Dale Jr. Download. “It appeared that he had been elevated away from the crew chief position from Denny Hamlin into the director of competition, which is a very critical role, and I thought, ‘Man, this guy is perfect for this, and they’ll be well positioned in that role.’ So, it’s hard to imagine how he got away or what would been the cause of the departure.”

From the 2024 season to the 2025 season, Gabehart made the transition from crew chief of the No. 11 team of Denny Hamlin to JGR competition director. Hamlin and Gabehart were a highly successful partnership, winning 22 races together in six seasons. That tied Kyle Larson/Cliff Daniels for the most wins among Cup Series driver/crew chief duos in that span. Hamlin qualified for the Championship 4 three times and finished fifth or better in points in five of six seasons with Gabehart.

Chris Gabehart will have a new home in 2026

Midway through the 2025 season, Gabehart began to take a more hands-on approach with Ty Gibbs and the No. 54 team. Gibbs had been struggling up to that point. He went on to win the inaugural NASCAR In-Season Challenge.

Now, Gabehart is moving on. The rumor is that Gabehart is headed to Spire Motorsports, though that has yet to be confirmed. Earnhardt wondered how much Gabehart’s sudden involvement with the No. 54 team led to this decision.

“They kind of found themselves in a little of a bind in the midseason with the 54 and Ty,” Earnhardt said. “And I think he was kind of like, ‘Hey, I’ll come in here and see if we can get this thing in the right direction. This is a very critical car in our fleet and Ty is critical to the future of the company. We need to get this turned around and if I can help make a difference, I will.’

“I don’t know if he chose or wanted to go through that, but he did it out of responsibility maybe. But I think the idea may have been that his director of competition role, I would assume, would have been superseding in the long-term objective for him.”