Denny Hamlin addresses navigating his championship trail amid 23XI Racing's legal battle with NASCAR
Denny Hamlin on Saturday addressed the subject of 23XI Racing suing NASCAR over the charter conflict. After the playoff race at Kansas, the team co-owned by Hamlin and NBA legend Michael Jordan announced that along with Front Row Motorsports, it would be taking the legal route to settle their charter conflict with NASCAR.
During his press interaction on Saturday, the JGR driver was asked how he's navigating his championship hunt amid the ongoing off-track matters involving 23XI and NASCAR. Hamlin replied that for him it was 'pretty simple' - he needs to prepare to the best of his capabilities and execute the best he can during the race.
Hamlin further said,
"It’s more of a question for my team and I would ask them ‘has your driver never not been prepared? Has he never given 100%?’ Never. I’ve certainly talked about it, probably a year or so ago when it came down to this and I became more comfortable with what the result was. No matter what, whether I win a championship or not, I’m going to make sure I can sleep at night knowing that I gave it my all for my team" [1:05].
When the veteran was asked whether he thought his team's financial commitment had been appreciated by the "other side," Hamlin had a succinct two-word response. He said,
"Probably not."
This came after he said his team is "obviously heavily invested" in the sport.
Denny Hamlin opens up on Michael Jordan's message from a Brad Pitt movie amid 23XI's legal battles
Ahead of the playoff race at Talladega this weekend, Hamlin was asked during a press conference what reactions he had received about the lawsuit.
Hamlin replied that from the team's end, the reaction has been positive. He revealed his business partner Jordan, who has a net worth of $3.2 billion, sent him a message amid the ongoing legal battle. Sharing this, Hamlin said,
"Michael Jordan sent me an awesome clip from ‘Moneyball,’ where John Henry was saying ‘the first one through the wall always gets bloodied.’ But, in the end, it’s because you’re threatening the status quo and threatening people’s jobs and things like that" [3:40].
The #11 driver added that he hoped 23XI's actions would be seen as the team taking the opportunity to promote change for everyone in the sport. Further speaking on this subject, Hamlin said that now that 23XI Racing suing NASCAR is public knowledge, he is relieved as the driver of the #11 car.
"Certainly on our end, that’s actually been good for me. This is not like just one day, we woke up and said ‘this is going to happen.’ This has been on the plate for a while. And certainly, from my standpoint, it’s provided more relief for me to put more focus on the No. #11 car and everything I have to do there since it’s out, done and now there’s other people out to speak on it, from the legality standpoint" [4:22].
With that said, it'll be interesting to see how Denny Hamlin fares in the playoffs amid his team's legal battle with NASCAR. Hamlin, who hasn't won a Cup championship in his career as a driver, is not only competing for that honor in that role, but also as an owner with his driver, Tyler Reddick, also in the playoffs.