NASCAR: The key reason why Denny Hamlin became a team owner

Denny Hamlin revealed what led him to make the decision to become a co-owner of new NASCAR Cup Series race team 23XI Racing with Michael Jordan.

One of the three new teams entering the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season was announced late last season when Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin decided to partner with longtime friend and NBA legend Michael Jordan.

That led to the creation of 23XI Racing, which then confirmed Bubba Wallace as the driver of the #23 car. They later confirmed, as expected, Toyota as their manufacturer as well as a technical alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing.

Hamlin spoke to Jim Rome on The Jim Rome Show following this past Sunday’s All-Star Race at Texas Motor Speedway about his decision to become a team owner and what led to him making that decision.

He said he ultimately made the decision when everything was shut down last year due to COVID-19-related restrictions.

“That’s essentially when I decided to start a race team,” said the driver of the #11 Toyota.

“We’re sitting around for eight weeks during lockdown for the country and I’m thinking, ‘Is this what retirement is like?’ — middle of the summer and I got nothing going on. And I was like, ‘I can’t golf every single day,’ so I figured I needed to have a job and something that I’m passionate about.”

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Hamlin has been competing in the Cup Series since 2005, doing so as a full-time driver since 2006. He signed up with Nike as a Jordan Brand athlete in 2011 and has maintained that affiliation with Jordan over the years.

“Obviously racing is something I’ve been doing for a really long time,” he explained. “It’s a sport that I kind of know the business of, and I felt like team ownership was maybe a place I wanted to be. Luckily I had great partners and founding partners that sponsored our car with Bubba Wallace in our first year, and Toyota is staying behind us and backing us going forward. Those are the key things that you gotta have to have a successful race team, and right now we have them.”

The five founding partners of 23XI Racing include DoorDash, McDonald’s, Columbia Sportswear, Dr. Pepper and Root Insurance.

While team ownership has drastically added to Hamlin’s workload, he has enjoyed the experience thus far — and he still manages to lead the point standings on the driver side of things, despite the fact that he has not yet won a race as a co-owner.

“It’s been fun,” he said. “For me, it takes a lot of time. Certainly I’ve got my schedule full with the sponsors and obligations that I have on my driving side, but now I’ve got them on the ownership side as well. There are a lot of meetings, a lot of board meetings, head of competition meetings, and things that I have to do, decisions that have to be made on the ownership front.

“It’s just a lot of work, and for me, it’s kind of compartmentalizing all that time to figure out, ‘What do I need to prioritize at what time to make sure I’m doing both jobs to the best of my ability?’”

The full interview can be found here.

The next race on the schedule is the inaugural race at Nashville Superspeedway, the Ally 400. NBC Sports Network is set to broadcast this race live beginning at 3:30 pm. ET this Sunday, June 20.