Betrayal and hope summed up Denny Hamlin's thoughts as he spoke about an going lawsuit between his current team and his former crew chief, and possible changes to the NASCAR Cup Series' superspeedway package.
FORT WORTH, Texas -- Hope and betrayal could sum up Denny Hamlin's thoughts as he spoke about the NASCAR Cup Series' superspeedway thoughts and a lawsuit involving his former crew chief.
Hamlin's No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota will start fourth Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway behind two cars from Spire Motorsports, a team he lit up this past week for a lawsuit one of their key employees is locked into.
New hire Chris Gabehart, who used to work as JGR's competition director, are at the center of a lawsuit JGR filed over an alleged scheme claiming he took hold of key information from JGR to bring to Spire.
"I know enough of the facts to at least assert something and I know JGR has never gone after someone. They don't care who else is running well but they invest so much into the sport and technology that you have to protect that or else it's an arms race," Hamlin said.
Gabehart worked with Hamlin from 2019 to 2024, scoring 23 wins and three Championship 4 appearances. In 2025, he became JGR's competition director.
That made him a valuable employee for Spire's operations.
"If we didn't protect important employees with non-competes and things like that... I could just go to Hendrick and someone like Chad Knaus and say, 'I'll give you a million bucks if you just come here' and that's not the way it can operate.
"I just think this is a very important process in our sport and if you quietly talk to other teams, intellectual property is something that has to be protected."
Unlike previous generations of cars, where teams individually made the parts within the specifications of the rulebook, every organization uses the same parts to build the cars. That means the technical details, like setups and the build details, make a much greater difference than before.
Data has also become much more important, including data on driving styles -- a sore spot for Hamlin.
"Some of the things that were agreed were taken, were what I put days, weeks, months, years into, and I couldn't imagine giving someone to for free and that's where it strikes hard. When I look at setups, I contributed greatly to that and so did a lot of other people," he said.
Hamlin described the money JGR spends as "astronomical," which adds to the fuel behind the fire in his posts.
"It feels like he went after that family and their family is my family," he said.
Hamlin and his JGR family on track will all start inside the top-10 for Sunday's Cup Series race at Texas. Behind Hamlin in fourth, teammates Chase Briscoe will start fifth, Christopher Bell will start seventh and Ty Gibbs will start 10th.
They're all looking for a better race than Talladega, which Bell was livid about after a bid for the stage two win hurt him at the finish.
"I burned too much fuel and went straight to the back," Bell said. "It's literally a lottery race. It's atrocious."
Hamlin echoed his teammate's sentiments and sent a text message to NASCAR's John Probst about changing the package. That text made it to NASCAR CEO Steve O'Donnell, leading to confirmation that changes to the package are in the works.
At Texas, Hamlin and some of the other drivers met as a committee to discuss possible changes with NASCAR.
"I think NASCAR has a good idea and direction of where to go for the next superspeedway race. It's hard to get it all in one chunk but, if I had to guess, the next superspeedway race will look different," Hamlin said.
Prior to the Talladega race, Probst said the changes they could make this season would be limited to things like stage lengths and more technical changes, like horsepower and spoiler size, would come with a possible test in January.
Hearing Hamlin, that may have changed after the adjusted stage lengths seemingly didn't produce the desired effects NASCAR was going for.
"The knobs [spoiler, engine size] they turn can be turned quickly. That's easy for me to say as a car owner and not an engine builder or supply the parts. You have two parts, the spoiler and the engine, and somewhere in that equation, you have to take both of those down a little bit to get where we want to go but it might still take some time. If we can change it even 25%, it's going to be a different race. If they get it in for Daytona, a hot race, you might see a different race," Hamlin said.
