Not that long ago, Denny Hamlin was skeptical of Joe Gibbs’ decision. At the end of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season, Gibbs decided to shuffle the No. 11 Toyota team. Hamlin’s former colleague, Chris Gabehart, who had collaborated with him for 22 wins over six years, was reassigned to a different role. But a little over a year later, however, Hamlin’s views have flipped with the shocking JGR lawsuit.

Denny Hamlin feels crestfallen at the JGR lawsuit

“It’s awfully disappointing to see two people that you’ve cared for not at odds right now. But I can only listen. If Joe Gibbs Racing is willing to go to court, I think they’re pretty serious. I’ll say that Joe [Gibbs] ain’t looking to fight anyone. So, it’s tough,” Denny Hamlin said on ‘Actions Detrimental.’

Two months after Denny Hamlin’s team, 23XI Racing, settled the NASCAR lawsuit, another legal battle unfolded in the sport. Last Thursday, Joe Gibbs Racing filed an $8 million lawsuit in the Western District of North Carolina. The JGR lawsuit accused former competition director Chris Gabehart of sharing confidential information and trade secrets with a competing team. And Hamlin, despite the good times shared with Gabehart, had to pick JGR’s side.

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“No one person owns any information,” Denny Hamlin said. “I collaborated in that I put my time in to help develop that. The engineers put time into developing that. In the aero department, there are so many departments that contribute to whatever that piece of paper says that the car is running that weekend. No one person owns that or has the right to take it anywhere. That’s someone else’s work. And so that’s why, as race teams, we have to protect that because we race a spec car now.”

“I mean, do you know how much faster we could possibly be if we had all of Hendrick’s information, theirs and ours? You just can’t let that happen. Which is why the teams are so very protective of their information. It’s what separates us is what our employees come up with during those weeks.

Denny Hamlin continued on the JGR lawsuit, “And you know, I’m sure Joe Gibbs Racing has spent tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars over the last decades coming up with what they think is the right answer every weekend. And they deserve to protect that.”

Clearly, the JGR lawsuit has shaken up the past camaraderie within JGR. Stay tuned for more updates!