Denny Hamlin proved on Sunday that buddy and business partner Michael Jordan isn’t the only one who can grab a rebound.
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A rough week for Hamlin ended with a fairly routine seventh-place finish in the NASCAR Cup playoff opener at Darlington Raceway. And boy, did Hamlin need it.
Before he got to Darlington, Hamlin endured a court discovery hearing where lots of eye-opening evidence from both sides, NASCAR versus the Hamlin co-owned 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports (FRM), surfaced.
Then there was NASCAR’s threat of an imminent sale of all three charters of 23XI (as well as all three of FRM’s charters) to undisclosed buyers. Then it got even worse.
Michael Jordan threatened in turn that he would shut down 23XI Racing if NASCAR goes through with its threat to sell the charters. If Jordan does indeed shut down his team and leaves NASCAR, it would be a major loss to the sport.
Not just due to Jordan’s legendary status when he won six NBA championships, but also because of what he represents in terms of attracting more Black fans to the sport.
If Jordan walks, it’s a good likelihood that many of those same fans he helped attract will also walk, which would be a massive loss to NASCAR, which has done so much to attract fans of color into the sport in the last decade.
That’s why Hamlin almost felt a wave of relief come over himself when he was in his own personal space behind the wheel of his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
He challenged for the top-five several times and although seventh isn’t a win or even a runner-up finish, he still leaves Darlington second in the Cup playoff standings behind Sunday night’s race winner and JGR teammate Chase Briscoe.
“Yes, it definitely does (feel good to rebound),” Hamlin told Frontstretch.com. “(It was a) good day all around for 23XI and a good day for us from a points standpoint.
“I wish we would have executed better to kind of see where we stacked up, but you’ll have that. But overall, you got to come out of days like today unscathed and obviously, the three of us have.”
Hamlin is in a unique position. Not only does he have to worry about his performance in the playoffs, as well as his two JGR teammates, race winner Chase Briscoe and Christopher Bell, but he also has to worry about the two playoff drivers that race for him on 23XI: Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace.
Both had a good night with Reddick finishing runner-up to Briscoe while Wallace finished sixth. When asked if he will sleep a bit better once he gets back from Darlington, knowing that his two 23XI drivers had strong playoff openers, Hamlin somewhat demurred, seemingly not wanting to take away any of the shine upon his JGR teammates.
“Yeah, I mean, anything can happen, right?” Hamlin said. “The guys that had a bad day today, they could have a bad day next week. You just never know.
“But certainly, it lets you not panic. It certainly will allow you to have a little bit more poise when you head into these next couple of races.”
What hampered Hamlin somewhat at Darlington
Hamlin also pointed out that the Next Gen car, the dirty air it produces, and a different kind of tire wear impacted much of the race.
“Yeah, dirty air is bad. I mean, I just would love to see some sort of fix to the car,” Hamlin said. “We’re just wasting time right now trying to pass each other. It’s just so, so difficult.
“We had tire wear, but it’s interesting that the falloff was less than what we had at Richmond. We had a more aggressive tire at Richmond, a softer compound.
“Here at Darlington, maybe the left sides could use some more wear to kind of break up the speeds of the cars, but everyone’s kind of just falling off at the same rate.
“Everyone’s driving very similar and there’s only so many grooves here at this racetrack. It’s just very, very difficult to pass.”
