Vance takes on a more visible transition role as he works to boost Trump's most controversial picks

WASHINGTON (AP) — After several weeks working mostly behind closed doors, Vice President-elect JD Vance returned to Capitol Hill this week in a new, more visible role: Helping Donald Trump try to get his most contentious Cabinet picks through Senate confirmation in the Senate, where Vance has served for the last two years.

Vance arrived at the Capitol on Wednesday with former Rep. Matt Gaetz and spent the morning sitting in on meetings between Trump’s choice for attorney general and key Republicans, including members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The effort was for naught: Gaetz announced a day later that he was withdrawing his name amid scrutiny over sex trafficking allegations and the reality that he was unlikely to be confirmed.

Thursday morning Vance was back, this time accompanying Pete Hegseth, the “Fox & Friends Weekend” host whom Trump has tapped to be the next secretary of defense. Hegseth also has faced allegations of sexual assault that he denies.

Vance is expected to accompany other nominees for meetings in coming weeks as he tries to leverage the two years he has spent in the Senate to help push through Trump's picks.

The role of introducing nominees around Capitol Hill is an unusual one for a vice president-elect. Usually the job goes to a former senator who has close relationships on the Hill, or a more junior aide.

But this time the role fits Vance, said Marc Short, who served as Trump’s first director of legislative affairs as well as chief of staff to Trump’s first vice president, Mike Pence, who spent more than a decade in Congress and led the former president’s transition ahead of his first term.

”JD probably has a lot of current allies in the Senate and so it makes sense to have him utilized in that capacity,” Short said.

Unlike the first Trump transition, which played out before cameras at Trump Tower in New York and at the president-elect's golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, this one has largely happened behind closed doors in Palm Beach, Florida.

There, a small group of officials and aides meet daily at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort to run through possible contenders and interview job candidates. The group includes Elon Musk, the billionaire who has spent so much time at the club that Trump has joked he can’t get rid of him.

Vance has been a constant presence, even as he’s kept a lower profile. The Ohio senator has spent much of the last two weeks in Palm Beach, according to people familiar with his plans, playing an active role in the transition, on which he serves as honorary chair.

Vance has been staying at a cottage on the property of the gilded club, where rooms are adorned with cherubs, oriental rugs and intricate golden inlays. It's a world away from the famously hardscrabble upbringing that Vance documented in the memoir that made him famous, “Hillbilly Elegy.”

His young children have also joined him at Mar-a-Lago, at times. Vance was photographed in shorts and a polo shirt playing with his kids on the seawall of the property with a large palm frond, a U.S. Secret Service robotic security dog in the distance.

On the rare days when he is not in Palm Beach, Vance has been joining the sessions remotely via Zoom.

Though he has taken a break from TV interviews after months of constant appearances, Vance has been active in the meetings, which began immediately after the election and include interviews and as well as presentations on candidates’ pluses and minuses.

Among those interviewed: Contenders to replace FBI Director Christopher Wray, as Vance wrote in a since-deleted social media post.

Defending himself from criticism that he’d missed a Senate vote in which one of President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees was confirmed, Vance wrote that he was meeting at the time "with President Trump to interview multiple positions for our government, including for FBI Director.”

“I tend to think it’s more important to get an FBI director who will dismantle the deep state than it is for Republicans to lose a vote 49-46 rather than 49-45,” Vance added on X. “But that’s just me.”

While Vance did not come in to the transition with a list of people he wanted to see in specific roles, he and his friend, Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., who is also a member of the transition team, were eager to see former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. find roles in the administration.

Trump ended up selecting Gabbard as the next director of national intelligence, a powerful position that sits atop the nation’s spy agencies and acts as the president’s top intelligence adviser. And he chose Kennedy to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, a massive agency that oversees everything from drug and food safety to Medicare and Medicaid.

Vance was also a big booster of Tom Homan, the former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who will serve as Trump's “border czar.”

In another sign of Vance's influence, James Braid, a top aide to the senator, is expected to serve as Trump’s legislative affairs director.

Allies say it’s too early to discuss what portfolio Vance might take on in the White House. While he gravitates to issues like trade, immigration and tech policy, Vance sees his role as doing whatever Trump needs.

Vance was spotted days after the election giving his son’s Boy Scout troop a tour of the Capitol and was there the day of leadership elections. He returned in earnest this week, first with Gaetz — arguably Trump’s most divisive pick — and then Hegseth, who has was been accused of sexually assaulting a woman in 2017, according to an investigative report made public this week. Hegseth told police at the time that the encounter had been consensual and denied any wrongdoing.

Vance hosted Hegseth in his Senate office as GOP senators, including those who sit on the Senate Armed Services Committee, filtered in to meet with the nominee for defense secretary.

While a president’s nominees usually visit individual senators’ offices, meeting them on their own turf, the freshman senator — who is accompanied everywhere by a large Secret Service detail that makes moving around more unwieldy — instead brought Gaetz to a room in the Capitol on Wednesday and Hegseth to his office on Thursday. Senators came to them.

Vance made it to votes Wednesday and Thursday, but missed others on Thursday afternoon.

Vance is expected to continue to leverage his relationships in the Senate after Trump takes office. But many Republicans there have longer relationships with Trump himself.

Sen. Kevin Cramer, a North Dakota Republican, said that Trump was often the first person to call him back when he was trying to reach high-level White House officials during Trump's first term.

“He has the most active Rolodex of just about anybody I’ve ever known,” Cramer said, adding that Vance would make a good addition.

“They’ll divide names up by who has the most persuasion here,” Cramer said, but added, “Whoever his liaison is will not work as hard at it as he will.”

Cramer was complimentary of the Ohio senator, saying he was “pleasant” and ” interesting” to be around.

″He doesn’t have the long relationships," he said. "But we all like people that have done what we’ve done. I mean, that’s sort of a natural kinship, just probably not as personally tied.”

Under the Constitution, Vance will also have a role presiding over the Senate and breaking tie votes. But he's not likely to be needed for that as often as was Kamala Harris, who broke a record number of ties for Democrats as vice president, since Republicans will have a bigger cushion in the chamber next year.

Colvin reported from New York. Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.

FILE - Sen. JD Vance R-Ohio speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Feb. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)

FILE - Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, arrives for a vote on Capitol Hill, Sept. 12, 2023 in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)

FILE - Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, arrives for a classified briefing on China, at the Capitol in Washington, Feb. 15, 2023. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

FILE - Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, right, speaks with Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, before testifying at a hearing, March 9, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf, File)

FILE - Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, center speaks during a Senate Banking Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

FILE - Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, departs the chamber at the Capitol in Washington, March 15, 2023. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to be attorney general, former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., center, and Vice President-elect JD Vance, left, walk out of a meeting with Republican Senate Judiciary Committee members, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

Vice President-elect JD Vance, still a Republican senator from Ohio, walks from a private meeting with President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to be attorney general, former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., left, and Vice President-elect Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, walk together after leaving Vance's office on Capitol Hill, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Denny Hamlin said he was “shocked” to learn that he'll have a new crew chief in 2025.

Joe Gibbs Racing announced that Chris Gayle will serve as the crew chief for Hamlin’s No. 11 team, with Chris Gabehart being promoted to competition director. Gayle has served as crew chief for JGR's No. 54 team for the past two seasons.

The new crew chief for the No. 54 team will be announced at a later date.

Hamlin said he didn't ask for a change of crew chief and appeared to be still digesting the news as he addressed reporters at the Charlotte Convention Center ahead of Friday night's NASCAR awards ceremony.

“They have to do what is best for the company,” Hamlin said. “I think they are looking for improvements on the 54 and they are looking for an overall improvement from all of the teams because we haven't had the amount of races as an organization as we should have.”

Hamlin said he has liked what he's heard about Gayle's style and thinks he'll “add a new flavor” to the No. 11 team.

“I think it was a the easiest choice since he has been a part of the program already,” Hamlin said.

Both Gabehart and Gayle have been mainstays at JGR for a number of years, and both led their teams to the Cup Series Playoffs and top-15 finishes in the overall point standings.

“We have a lot of pride in the depth of talent we have throughout our organization,” JGR owner and founder Joe Gibbs said. “Chris Gabehart will now be an asset across all four of our teams as competition director and we thought it was important to have him transition into his new role immediately. Chris Gayle will bring his own perspective to the 11 team while also maintaining the consistency and continuity they have developed with Denny (Hamlin) over the past several years."

Gayle has won two Cup Series races, 37 Xfinity Series wins and the 2022 Xfinity Series championship since joining JGR as an engineer in 2003.

Gayle moved into a crew chief position in 2013 with JGR’s Xfinity Series team. In four seasons, his teams won 20 races. He spent 2017 as a crew chief for Furniture Row Racing before rejoining JGR in 2018 in the Cup Series with Erik Jones. He led the young driver to his first career win in 2018 and followed that up with a Southern 500 victory in 2019.

Gayle guided JGR’s No. 54 Xfinity Series team and won 10 races with four different drivers.

Gayle also led Ty Gibbs to seven victories and the series championship before they moved to the Cup Series in 2023. Last season, Gayle oversaw the No. 54 team’s growth in Gibbs’ second season, earning eight top-five finishes, 12 top-10s and two pole awards while leading 417 laps.

Gayle said he is looking forward to working with Hamlin, whom he called “a first-ballot Hall of Famer.”

“He and Gabehart have established an incredible culture that is a very good barometer for our other drivers and teams to strive to match,” Gayle said. "I have all the confidence in the world we can hit the ground running and continue the success that this group is accustomed to in 2025.”

Gabehart joined Joe Gibbs Racing in 2012 as a race engineer before transitioning to crew chief with the team’s NASCAR Xfinity Series program from 2016-18.

He spent three seasons there, earning nine victories with multiple drivers.

Gabehart was promoted to be the crew chief of the No. 11 team in 2019. The Hamlin-Gabehart combination proved to be a threat immediately by winning the 2019 Daytona 500 on the way to three consecutive Championship 4 appearances. Gabehart and Hamlin won 22 races in six years, including two Daytona 500s.

“I am very thankful for the opportunities that Joe Gibbs Racing has continued to provide me for my entire tenure here and cannot say enough about how much I have enjoyed and appreciated my time with Denny and the entire 11 team,” Gabehart said. “They have all taught me so much about not only how to race at the top of the NASCAR Cup Series, but also, how to lead a great group of talented professionals. In my next opportunity, I am as excited as I have ever been to work with all our talented drivers, crew chiefs, teams and partners to help focus all our efforts towards making 2025 one of the best seasons Joe Gibbs Racing has ever had.”

RFK Racing announced that veteran crew chief Jeremy Bullins has joined the organization, reuniting with driver/co-owner Brad Keselowski to lead the No. 6 team beginning in 2025.

Bullins, who has been a part of 31 wins, joins RFK after a decade-plus stint in the Cup Series with Wood Brothers Racing and Team Penske, working with drivers Ryan Blaney, Keselowski, Austin Cindric and Harrison Burton.

“I’m excited and grateful for the opportunity to work with BK again, this time in the iconic No. 6 car with RFK,” Bullins said. “We were able to accomplish a lot as a team previously, but we had a couple of unfinished goals like a Daytona 500 win and a championship together and I’m ecstatic we get the opportunity to compete together again."

He most recently led the No. 21 team, earning the organization’s famed 100th victory at Daytona this summer.

Previously, he was paired with Cindric and the No. 2 team, which came on the heels of Keselowski’s departure from Team Penske at the end of the 2021 campaign. Together, Bullins and Keselowski finished second in the 2020 points standings, and won five races in the Cup Series in the 2020-21 seasons.

The 23XI Racing team will have three Cup Series cars in 2025.

It’s newest driver will be Riley Herbst, who recently concluded the Xfinity Series season driving the No. 98 car. Herbst will drive the No. 35 Toyota Camry for the team co-owned by Michael Jordan.

Herbst joins veteran teammates Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick in the 23XI racing stable.

Herbst has 175 starts in the Xfinity Series since 2018 with three career wins and playoff appearances in four of his five full-time seasons. His first career win came in the fall race last season at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, his home track.

“Having worked with Riley in the past, we have watched his growth over the last several seasons in the NASCAR Xfinity Series,” said Tyler Gibbs, general manager of Toyota Racing Development. “We look forward to Riley rejoining the Toyota family and supporting him to achieve his goals next year and into the future.”

Martin Truex Jr. said he still has plans to race the Daytona 500 in February, but said it likely won't be with 23XI racing.

“No, I'm not sure what they're doing, honestly,” Truex said. “I was told JGR's doing it somehow, so we will see.”

Truex is retiring from full-time racing, but said he plans to drive occasionally on the Xfinity Series.

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

NASCAR auto racing driver Martin Truex Jr. speaks ahead of the NASCAR awards ceremony in Charlotte N.C., Friday, Nov. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Steve Reed)

NASCAR auto racing driver Denny Hamlin speaks ahead of the NASCAR awards ceremony in Charlotte N.C., Friday, Nov. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Steve Reed)

FILE - Denny Hamlin is introduced before a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Michigan International Speedway, Aug. 18, 2024, in Brooklyn, Mich. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, File)