“Look at the Teams and Drivers That He’s Beaten”: Denny Hamlin Applauds Bubba Wallace After Achieving “The Only Goal” With 23XI Racing

Denny Hamlin is probably in a bittersweet state right now. On one hand, his contract situation with Joe Gibbs Racing, his team, 23XI Racing’s alliance contract with Joe Gibbs Racing, and 23XI’s contract with Toyota, are all due to be renewed. But on the other hand, both of his drivers, Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick, and he himself too, are going into the playoffs.

On the brighter side of things, Hamlin recently explained how they’ve achieved the only goal they had with 23XI Racing this year. Moreover, the #11 driver also had some big words for Bubba Wallace and his growth.

Denny Hamlin applauds Bubba Wallace for fulfilling 23XI’s only goal of 2023

In a post-race interview at Daytona, Hamlin touched upon how he wasn’t feeling too worried about Wallace not making it into the playoffs considering the way the field was, and of course, how the #23 driver didn’t get unlucky. He said, “Luckily, they didn’t get unlucky and we’ve got two cars in the playoffs.”

“That’s what we set out. The only goal for 23XI this year was both cars in the playoffs. Tyler in his first year and Bubba in his third, getting it done.”

Subsequently, Hamlin was asked about Wallace, and what his growth means to him as an owner, to which the veteran replied, “Look at the teams and drivers that he’s beaten. I think that can’t be stated enough beating legitimate teams and drivers that make playoffs all the time and he did it because he works hard. He’s worked on his craft of getting better.”

Hamlin added that their job now is to bring fast cars to Wallace and Reddick, and their job now, for the next 10 weeks, is to execute and give it all they’ve got.

Denny Hamlin said the only goal this year at 23XI Racing was to get both cars in the playoffs. So he was a proud team owner Saturday night at Daytona. pic.twitter.com/d5gouvoEE9

— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) August 27, 2023

Now, this was the bright side. On the other side of things for Hamlin and his team, things aren’t as clear as he would’ve wanted them to be considering everything.

Hamlin reveals what lies in the future for 23XI and why the renewal is taking so long

A lot of speculation has arisen because of the fact that there hasn’t been a concrete announcement regarding the future of 23XI Racing. Many are wondering if the Hamlin-Jordan-owned team will look to Ford or Chevrolet instead of Toyota. But Hamlin recently crushed such speculation.

He claimed that he’s pretty happy with both Toyota as well as their alliance with JGR. But at the same time, the 23XI co-owner claimed that one piece of the equation is still not there yet, something which is “a big thing,” something which is more or less the reason why the whole process of renewal is taking this long.

That thing is the alignment of the visions of all parties involved.