Does Denny Hamlin Feel NASCAR Values the Investments of 23XI? "Probably Not"
Since the announcement of the formation of 23XI Racing in late 2020, Denny Hamlin, Michael Jordan and Curtis Polk have invested a lot of their time, money, and other resources in not only building a single NASCAR Cup Series team, but expanding to two full-time entries and making those two entries capable of winning races, and in the case of Tyler Reddick and the No. 45 team -- capable of winning the regular season championship as they did this year.
While they've traveled it fairly quickly, it's been a long road from 23XI Racing's inception to where they are in 2024. But as 23XI Racing, along with Front Row Motorsports forge forward with an antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR, does Hamlin feel that the sanctioning body fairly values the investments that he and his team have personally made in their short time in NASCAR?
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"Probably not," Hamlin summized after a long pause when asked during his media availability on Saturday morning at Talladega Superspeedway.
While Hamlin's 23XI Racing organization is one of just two teams that held out from signing NASCAR's latest revision of the 2025 Charter Agreement on Friday, September 6, the lawsuit alleges that the reason so many teams signed the deal was due to pressure applied by NASCAR, which threatened to revoke Charters from team owners, who didn't sign the deal by midnight on the Friday leading into the race weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
On Saturday, Richard Childress confirmed the 'take-it-or-leave-it' deal is what he experienced on September 6, and the legendary team owner stated in an interview with FOX Sports' Bob Pockrass that he didn't feel like he had a choice but to sign the deal.
As a result, Hamlin feels with the facts of the matter starting to become unearthed, the reaction to the lawsuit has been met with a mostly positive reaction from fellow team owners and fans watching the situation unfold from the sidelines.
"I feel like the reaction has all been positive on our end, of course," Hamlin stated. "You know, I think that [Michael] Jordan sent me an awesome clip from Moneyball, where I think John Henry is saying the first one through the wall always gets bloody. But in the end, it's because you are threatening the status quo. You're threatening people's jobs and things like that. I just hope it's not seen that way. Just seeing that this is certainly an opportunity for us to try to promote change in the sport that is positive for everyone. And that's teams, drivers, fans, everyone."
While the lawsuit stands to potentially make rippling changes to the fiber of the makeup of how NASCAR is run, Hamlin is just thankful the lawsuit has been filed, and that he can now focus on one thing, and one thing only; chasing his first career NASCAR Cup Series championship.
And so, I feel like certainly on our end, it's actually been good for me. Because this isn't like we just decided, we woke up one day and this was going to happen. This has been on the plate for a while. And certainly, from my standpoint, it allows me actually more relief to focus on the [No.] 11 car and everything I've got to do there because it's out, it's done and now there are other people to speak upon it from a legality standpoint.," Hamlin said.
While Hamlin, who admittedly thrives in chaos, feels the lawsuit being filed will allow him to focus solely on driving for the remainder of the 2024 season, how can he truly be focused with something so big looming on the horizon?
"I think it's pretty simple," Hamlin emphasized. "You just have to prepare the best you can. Do the best job that you can on Sunday. I think that you know, it's really more of a question for my team. I would ask them has your driver never not been prepared? Has he never given 100% ever?"
Hamlin, who has been chasing the ultimate goal of winning the NASCAR Cup Series title since his rookie campaign in 2006, says his level of preperation, and execution has allowed him to no longer worry about whether he wins a championship or not. The 43-year-old racer says he will be able to sleep well at night once his career is finished regardless, because he knows he's left it all out on the track.
Hamlin enters Sunday's YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, the second race of the three-race Round of 12 of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, fifth in the championship standings, and he finds himself 11 points above the Playoff cutline. If he can survive what is expected to be a wild race on Sunday, he'll greatly improve his chances of moving on to the Round of 8 of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.
Toby Christie is the Editor-in-Chief of Racing America. He has 15 years of experience as a motorsports journalist and has been with Racing America since 2023.