Mike Wheeler's crew chief career off to a dream start

— -- DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Denny Hamlin could talk all he wants, saying how he had agreed with Mike Wheeler that Wheeler would eventually serve as his crew chief.

But when Wheeler got sent to work as a Joe Gibbs Racing crew chief in the Xfinity Series after the 2014 season, Wheeler no longer believed the words of one of his best friends.

"Everybody talks about the agreement I had with Denny years ago," Wheeler said Monday morning. "And I would tell you that at the end of '14, I thought that agreement was gone. It was a gentleman's handshake type of thing. ... I thought my career path with him was over."

A smart engineer, Wheeler couldn't envision the scenario that occurred over the past three months, where crew chief Darian Grubb was released, Dave Rogers moved from Hamlin to Carl Edwards and Wheeler was elevated to Hamlin's crew chief on the Sprint Cup side.

Wheeler, who won four races including three with Hamlin on the Xfinity Series side last year, is 1-for-1 as a crew chief in Sprint Cup races. It's a big 1 -- the 2016 Daytona 500, which Hamlin won Sunday at Daytona International Speedway.

"I never thought I would get back to the Cup side this quickly. I heard rumors for years that I would be the next crew chief and this and that," Wheeler said. "But I knew it was just rumors, people talking. All year long up until a couple weeks left in the year, I was setting up to be Erik Jones' crew chief for this year [in Xfinity].

"Going from that to winning the 500 in a couple of months, it's definitely a crazy moment."

The 37-year-old Wheeler said when Grubb came to JGR to be Hamlin's crew chief after being released following the Tony Stewart championship run in 2011, Grubb was surprised that JGR didn't hire Wheeler, who had severed as Hamlin's engineer since Hamlin joined the team in 2004.

"When Darian came on board, I remember him seeing me in the garage area and saying, 'Wow, I'm surprised they didn't give you the job,'" Wheeler said. "I remember saying to him, 'Well, I didn't win the championship last month.'

"I get it. I don't have that stature, not just from me to Darian, but it's coach [Joe Gibbs] to sponsors to manufacturers, everybody -- that the little engineer, can he really do it?"

When Grubb came in, Wheeler had more responsibilities so Grubb could get acclimated to the JGR way. Wheeler knew he could continue to learn working as the second-in-command role. He declined earlier offers to go to the Xfinity Series with JGR.

"I was not really excited about doing [that] because I know you can get lost in the program if you get subpar results with average drivers -- that's what happens sometimes," Wheeler said. "You can get lost in the mix and your career could fizzle. I was kind of scared doing that."

Eventually, he knew he had to make the move to Xfinity in order to get the shot with JGR in Cup. It wasn't just Hamlin who started lobbying for him to be his Cup crew chief following 2015 as Matt Kenseth endorsed his quick move to Cup after working with him on the Xfinity side.

Also throughout last season, other organizations consistently asked him about his availability (as he was under contract with JGR).

"You can only be a great engineer for so long before other teams are going to come knocking," Hamlin said. "Joe gave him that opportunity in the Xfinity Series.  Even though I probably premature promised him the job, a little soon, I was happy that Gibbs said, 'Let's just take you through the same process that all of our other crew chiefs had.'

"I'm glad he was only gone for a year."