Hamlin, Gayle pairing gets off to a solid start at Bowman Gray

The first weekend of competition for the Denny Hamlin and Chris Gayle pairing laid a solid foundation to build on as the NASCAR Cup Series season unfolds.

Hamlin earned a spot in the Cook Out Clash by winning his heat race on Saturday night at Bowman Gray Stadium. In the Sunday night feature, Hamlin led 28 laps. He ultimately finished third when the balance on the No. 11 Toyota wasn’t as good through the long run as those of Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney, who finished ahead of him.

“But it’s a good first attempt,” Gayle told RACER. “You’re here the first time, and I’m with a bunch of new guys. So you get to go through… not a normal process, but somewhat of a process of how these guys made decisions before me (being) in the loop of everything, understanding some of those things and how it was done. We can talk about it all we want to in the shop, but until you kind of get in the heat of the moment trial-by-fire situation, it’s not the same.

“So, all of that was really good. Working with the mechanics. It’s not that different than what I’m used to; I’m familiar with everybody but the individuals and how that goes (is different).”

Joe Gibbs Racing named Gayle as Hamlin’s crew chief in November. It was one of the dominoes to fall when Chris Gabehart, who had guided Hamlin’s team for six seasons, became the competition director at Gibbs.

Gayle is the sixth crew chief Hamlin has worked with in his Cup Series career. Although they weren’t paired previously, Gayle has heard Hamlin’s feedback while sitting in the Gibbs competition meetings over the last few seasons. Gayle was previously the crew chief for Ty Gibbs.

“Chris is someone that I ran just a couple of Xfinity races (with), but we’re learning each other, and certainly, it’s a process,” Hamlin said Sunday night. “We’re not going to just figure each other out right off the bat. I’m trying to do things as I did before, and he’s trying to understand that. But I’m also trying to give him the full free rein to do things however he sees fit as well. He got to this position for a reason, and so you’ve got to always trust your leadership to make the right calls.

“My job is to drive the car and give them the feedback. Nothing more. I’m not the crew chief. I’m not the strategist. Nothing like that. My job is to do it today and go there tomorrow and tell them a direction that we need to work on. That’s really important, and I feel like it’s getting off to a good start.”

A top-five weekend to start things off helps, Gayle admitted. But it wasn’t necessarily important that it had it go to that way.

“Of course, that’s how you pencil in what you want to do, but it’s not the be-all, end-all if it didn’t work out that way,” Gayle said. “This is a unique racetrack, a unique situation, one-off, so I don’t put that much stock into it, but it’s nice to have a decent solid run to start.”