As Denny Hamlin continues to pursue his first NASCAR Cup Series championship, he’ll be attempting to balance it with off-track turmoil.
Earlier this week, 23XI Racing, the team Hamlin co-owns with NBA legend Michael Jordan, along with Front Row Motorsports filed a joint antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR and CEO Jim France.
Both teams elected not to sign NASCAR’s updated charter agreement for 2025.
Hamlin believes it’s a simple balancing act in handling any potential distractions.
“Just need to prepare the best you can and do the best you can on Sunday,” Hamlin said. ‘I think 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. Certainly, there’s been some circumstances over time that I haven’t been able to control, but to not let those situations affect me,” Hamlin continued.
“Certainly, this is a situation I can control and I give the team the proper preparation and make sure that when I get in the race car on Sunday, they know through my actions on the track that I’m 100% in it and focused.”
Following an eighth-place finish at Kansas Speedway, Hamlin’s focus shifts to Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, one of the wild card tracks in the NASCAR Playoffs.
With the lawsuit grabbing the attention of the motorsports world, both positive and negative reactions are expected.
However, from Hamlin’s perspective, it’s “been positive on our end.”
“Of course, I think that (pause),” Hamlin began. “Mike Jordan sent me an awesome clip from ‘The 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. I 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’s positive for everyone. And that’s teams, drivers, fans, everyone.
“I feel like, certainly on our end, that’s actually been good for me.”
Creating change in any sport doesn’t happen without persistent planning and considerations. Both 23XI and Front Row’s plan of action has been “on the plate for a while.”
“This is not like just one day, we woke up and said, ‘This is going to happen,’” Hamlin said.
“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.”
The driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota is fifth on the playoff grid, 11 points above the cutline.