Denny Hamlin has driven for Joe Gibbs Racing since 2005. In 2021, he also launched 23XI Racing, a team he co-owns with Michael Jordan.
Hamlin’s unique conflict came to a head two weeks ago at Kansas Speedway while he was racing 23XI’s Bubba Wallace for the win.
Hamlin, who will turn 45 on Nov. 18, is still seeking the one thing missing from his résumé: a NASCAR Cup championship.
LAS VEGAS — Denny Hamlin will start on the pole at South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday, Oct. 12 in the middle of an ongoing predicament in the NASCAR Cup Series.
Hamlin, a likely Hall-of-Famer with 59 career victories, is chasing his first NASCAR Cup championship while testing the boundaries between driving for one team (Joe Gibbs Racing) and co-owning another team (23XI Racing) with Michael Jordan.
“It sounds easy, running a race team, but it’s not,’’ Hamlin told USA TODAY Sports while addressing the dynamic. “You’re always putting out fires and then understanding how to manage those fires is the key.’
It was a fire Hamlin started that drew attention to the predicament.
On Sept. 28 during the second round of the NASCAR playoffs, Hamlin drove his No. 11 Toyota onto Kansas Speedway for the Hollywood Casino 400 amid the field of 37 cars, which also included 23XI Racing’s top drivers, Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick. On the final lap of the race, with Hamlin and Wallace competing for the win in overtime, the aggressive-driving Hamlin forced Wallace up the track, into the outside wall and out of the lead.
“You’re going to have those situations, and it won’t be the last where I’m racing a 23XI car for a victory,’’ Hamlin said. “And do I wish that I could do things maybe differently had things happened all over again? Yeah, that’s part of life lessons that you continue even as an adult.
“Been doing this 20 years. I always feel like I’m a student of the game and a student of learning as a person and a man how I can be better.’’
Hamlin did not elaborate what he would have done differently in Kansas. But the heart-to-heart he later apparently had with Wallace did not extinguish all embers of the fire.
A Wallace victory would have guaranteed a 23XI Racing driver a berth in the Round of 8, which kicks of at Las Vegas as the playoffs continue with four races remaining in the 2025 season. Instead, Wallace and Reddick were both eliminated the next week at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Hamlin, the driver, remains in championship contention after safely advancing to the third round on points.
“I think about it every day,’’ Wallace, who has driven for 23XI Racing since its inception, told USA TODAY Sports about the incident with Hamlin at Kansas. “It’s still difficult to swallow just being out (of the playoffs) at this point because I didn’t have it in our playbook when the playoffs started.’’
Hamlin likely didn’t either, despite having to navigate the delicate balance between racing for one team and owning another since 23XI Racing debuted as a NASCAR Cup Series team at the 2021 Daytona 500. It’s one of the most unique conundrums in sports, especially as Hamlin, who will turn 45 on Nov. 18, seeks the one thing missing from his résumé: a NASCAR Cup championship.
“I’m in a tough situation because I also compete, so there’s a couple days of the weekend where I can’t really be the owner of 23XI. I have to go and compete against them,’ Hamlin told USA TODAY Sports. ‘But for the rest of the time … my success long term is in that (23XI Racing) building. That’s where my goals are long term, is to see that team succeed. In the short term, they’re competitors of mine, on at least Sunday.
‘What I’ve found for myself is I’ve got a really big tackle box in my brain that’s able to compartmentalize different parts of my life. Even though I’ve got so much going on, I find little spaces for each one of them.’
Hamlin, brought to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway media room after winning the pole Saturday, ended up fielding questions about the incident with Wallace yet again, two weeks after that race. He also addressed the issues with USA TODAY Sports before qualifying started.
“I’ve been with Joe Gibbs Racing for over 20 years now and I have to make sure on Sundays I have to do everything to win for that team,’’ Hamlin said. “Because they’re the ones that hired me and they wouldn’t hire a driver that is conflicted in the end.’
While Hamlin sounded contrite at one point, he later stressed how he’s helped 23XI Racing drivers and that he works more with them than with his teammates at Joe Gibbs Racing, fellow playoff drivers Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe.
“Not because I chose that, but because they (23XI drivers) pick my brain a little bit more than my Joe Gibbs Racing teammates do,’’ he said. “So I try to make them faster for six days of the week and sometimes they go out there and use that information I give them and they go and beat me with it, and then I’m kicking myself. But I always bring myself back to, their success is going to be good for me in the long term.’’
Hamlin said he’s not surprised the incident with one of the 23XI Racing drivers took place.
“It’s just amazing it took five years …’’ he said. “But when you’re looking for a win, it’s an interesting, complex thing that I find myself in, right?”
(This story has been updated to correct a date.)