Freddie Kraft explains 'concern' surrounding Chris Gabehart, Joe Gibbs Racing parting ways

Chris Gabehart will have a new home in 2026 after Jenna Fryer of The Associated Press reported earlier this month that he 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.

JGR notably shares a technical alliance with 23XI Racing. Freddie Kraft, spotter for the No. 23 team and driver Bubba Wallace, explained on the “Door Bumper Clear” the “concern” of Gabehart’s departure from JGR.

“For our side of it, which obviously it came out in the trial that we have an alliance we pay for through JGR, and this is, what I would say, a concern,” Kraft said. “Gabehart, when he was crew chiefing a couple years ago, if you had asked me then if you’re a driver and you could take one crew chief, it probably would have been Gabehart.

“It’s just kind of the overall picture of you can always see he played ‘let’s see these strategies play out.’ There was never a panic call — he was always ‘I know this is the best strategy, this is what I’m going to stick to,’ and nine times out of 10 I felt it played out unless something crazy happened in the middle of it. Obviously, the cars always had speed.”

Chris Gabehart out at JGR, Freddie Kraft can’t believe it

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.

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.

Gabehart will impart his knowledge on a new team next season. Kraft can’t imagine why JGR is seemingly allowing it to happen.

“For our side of it, it’s hard to imagine how you let this guy walk out the door,” Kraft said. “… He was so integrated in everything — the analytics side, you know, everything. He was one of the ones where all the superspeedway stuff we do, all the plans or whatever you wanna call it for how are we gonna run all these superspeedway races, he was very integral in parts of that.

“So, now he takes all of that wealth of information and obviously, I don’t know how much he can bring as far as what he can share and what he can’t share but goodness, it’s hard to imagine just letting this guy leave.”