Gayle finds relief from the pressure to win with Hamlin at Martinsville
03/30/2025 08:57 PM
The nerves were so high and the shaking so heavy as the laps wound down at Martinsville Speedway that Chris Gayle found it both humorous and concerning atop the pit box.
"I was laughing and joking on the intercom," Gayle said. "With the engineer (Chris Minogue) next to me, who was shaking his feet, and the people behind us, I'm like, ‘We need a mass damper on here. Somebody is going to get rocked off the box.’"
It turned out fine for everyone involved.
Gayle's driver, Denny Hamlin, dominated and won Sunday's race. The feat was the first for Hamlin at the track since the spring of 2015, and it also ended a drought for the No. 11 team that had gone back to late April 2024.
Perhaps even more significant, it put Gayle in victory lane for the first time as Hamlin's team leader. Gayle was paired with Hamlin during the winter in a move that surprised Hamlin but that the organization made as part of multiple changes in hopes of improving itself overall.
The triumph Sunday seemed to bring visible relief not just to the team but to Gayle as well.
With a smile, Gayle said, "Probably me more than anybody else, right? I'm the only one that's changed.
"They've won races previous to me, so if anybody was going to have pressure on them, it was me. I think anytime you have change, there's that concern. They haven't shown it to me — the team hasn't. But I'm sure in the back of their minds, it's human nature of, ‘OK, well, are we going to win as much as we did before? We're doing some changes here, and how is this all going to work?’ It's great that I feel like we've worked well together, but for sure, to get that first win out of the way and get it done early, probably relieves them all (and) myself included."
Gayle took the reins from Chris Gabehart, who had won 22 races with Hamlin. It's been a leaner Cup Series career for Gayle. He worked with Erik Jones from 2017 through 2020, winning at Daytona International Speedway (2018) and Darlington Raceway (2019).
The 2021 and '22 seasons were spent in the Xfinity Series. Gayle led the organization's All-Star car to 10 wins in 2021 and then guided Gibbs to the series championship the following year on the strength of seven wins.
Gibbs moved Gayle and Ty Gibbs into the Cup Series together in 2023. It was there that Gayle worked before he became the organization had the belief that he could be the next man up to guide Hamlin. Hamlin, of course, being a veteran who is still looking for his first championship but is accustomed to winning.
"I've been paired with rookies — we've talked about this," Gayle said. "I've won two Cup (Series) races before this, but I've always felt like in the right situation, I'm very capable of winning a lot more races than that. And I haven't had the situation to show it. I think for me that's what this was: this was an all-in, I need to go show what I can do here and win races and win more than one race with Denny Hamlin.
"So, for me, I think I put that pressure on myself to go do that right away. It definitely feels rewarding to get the first part of that done now."
