Caught in a final stage crash that ended his race in Talladega, Denny Hamlin had all the reason to fret on Sunday. Thankfully, comfort came from another direction. Tyler Reddick, the driver of 23XI Racing’s #45 car, ended up the winner and gave the team that Hamlin co-owns its first victory in 2024. Talking to the press after the race, Hamlin said that the day’s positives balanced off the negatives for him.
Advertisement
He noted that watching a 23XI Racing driver win was like watching his kids win and that it always meant more than his personal victories. He said to Fox, “The day was disastrous for us. I was sitting there over by the tunnel just waiting to head to the airport. The TV was a little bit behind so I couldn’t figure out who’d won until they came back around. So excited for this race team and Tyler.”
Hamlin’s crash in Lap 156 came from a Toyota strategy that went wrong. Seven Toyotas from different teams had refueled early on Lap 151 and had filed up in a single line attempting to get past the Fords and Chevrolets when they pitted to refuel. The close-cut racing resulted in an untimely nudge from one of the seven [Bubba Wallace] and ended the race of four, one of whom was Hamlin.
Michael Jordan expresses delight at 23XI Racing winning at the cost of Hamlin
One of the happiest individuals in Talladega on Sunday was Michael Jordan. The basketball superstar co-owns 23XI Racing along with Hamlin. He’d missed each of the team’s last five wins and earned a badge of bad luck from his partner because of it. Now that Reddick finally brought home a victory with Jordan present on the track, he couldn’t be happier about it.
“Well, Denny keeps saying I was bad luck when I come to the track,” he said, “Today, we proved him wrong. He did a good job of wrecking so we could get out front. That was actually pretty good. Tyler did a good job. Unfortunately, Bubba couldn’t finish. The whole team did a good job. I’m happy to be here and see it.”
The victory for 23XI Racing was a long coming one after repeated good performances from Reddick and Wallace. The way the race transpired was accurately reflective of what Talladega is all about. The unpredictability was the core catalyst behind the ill-luck that Hamlin faced and the fortune that came Reddick’s way.
