After winning the 2007 championship Gabehart worked
as a crew chief for Zach Taylor for the Great Deals Racing Team in
2008. 2009 found him moving to Georgia to be the crew chief for Reaid
Motorsports, with T.J. Reaid as the driver.
Now as crew chief for KBM Gabehart has found himself
in the unusual position of preparing cars for different drivers on a
regular basis. "We have had 8 drivers so far this year." Gabehart
commented. "When I was the driver crew chief all the information came
to me unfiltered. I knew what I wanted to do to change the car. Now I
have to interpret what the drivers want. Each driver has his own way
of speaking, and I have to correlate my experience as a driver to what
they are saying to understand how they want the car setup." It is a
challenge he relishes. "There are a lot more
steps involved now to get the car ready.
Filtering the information correctly and get the car set up." One of
the other challenges
is
each driver likes the car set up slightly differently, making the
interpreting their wishes all the difficult.
A different challenge for Gabehart is managing such
a large team. "Managing the people and equipment is also very
different. It is not easy to set up multiple cars in a duplicate way.
It sounds easy, but it is not. It is a lot like coaching, you have to
find what motivates the different team members, and get them all
pulling in one direction so we can put a good product on the track
every time."
Gabehart excelled as a driver, winning the CRA Super
Series Rookie of the Year Award in 2004, before coming back for the
Championship in 2007. "The little kid in me really likes driving. But
this is a great opportunity for me." Gabehart stated. "It has opened a
lot of doors for me, and I have to be mature enough to take these
opportunities when they happen."
As for coming back to Anderson Speedway Gabehart is
looking
forward
to the chance to see old friends and to challenge as a crew chief,
a track he where has driven over 2000 laps and one win. "I liked all
the tracks we raced at, but I think I have more laps at Anderson than
anywhere else. It will be great to see everybody again."
He will be looking to add to his two wins as crew
chief in the CRA Super Series this year as Busch’s chief. The team
took got the win at Speedfest in January and at Berlin Raceway in
June. They will attempt to retain the title Busch won last year when
he dominated the race to win going away. This year Gabehart will be in
the pits, watching every lap and working to give a great driver a car
strong enough to win.
