2022 Daytona 500: 23XI built on Michael Jordan, Denny Hamlin friendship

By Bob Pockrass
FOX Sports NASCAR Writer

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Denny Hamlin certainly knows the old advice about not going into business with friends unless one has fully prepared for the worst — the worst being that if the business side goes sour, the friendship could as well.

But Hamlin hasn’t worried about losing his good friend Michael Jordan. They wouldn’t have started a NASCAR team together if they had any doubts.

« One of the things that was very important to him and his brand is that we can’t fail, » Hamlin said. « We can’t be going out of business in a couple years.

« We’ve got to be in this for the long haul. And so, building something slowly but surely, that is the strategic way we’re trying to go about this. »

Slowly might be in the eye of the beholder. In 2022, 23XI Racing expanded from one car to two, even though Bubba Wallace didn’t demonstrate consistency as the team’s sole driver in 2021. He did win at Talladega, but he finished 21st in the standings, with three top-10s (all top-5s) in 36 races. 

The organization didn’t necessarily seem ready to grow, but part of the strategy Hamlin plans to employ is adding to the team roster whenever he can pluck free agents, both as drivers and on the technical side. And no one comes more talented than Kurt Busch, so Hamlin pounced on the opportunity to hire the future Hall of Fame driver.

As 23XI Racing enters its second season, it is eyeing improvement and taking steps toward seriously contending for a championship by 2025.

After 15 months, Hamlin, who continues to drive for Joe Gibbs Racing while co-owning 23XI, and Jordan, the basketball GOAT and owner of the Charlotte Hornets, remain friends.

« You typically don’t want to go into business with your friends, but they bring an asset to the team, » Hamlin said. « They bring something to the team that we can use to help, whether it be selling sponsorship, the staff that they have at the Charlotte Hornets — we utilize a lot of them.

« So, it really works out well with this partnership. I bring help on the competition side. They bring a lot of help on the business side. »

The competition side: Busch

The biggest change for the second year of the organization? That’s easy: the 43-year-old Busch.

The 2004 Cup champion has won 33 races in his career. He has experience at several of the biggest teams in the sport, including Roush, Penske, Stewart-Haas and Ganassi, as well as stops at former organizations Furniture Row and Phoenix Racing.

And while a driver doesn’t race for seven teams in 23 years if everything is rosy at each stop, Hamlin said he « wouldn’t have done it without Kurt, that’s for sure » when it came to starting a second team.

« He was the only person I really, truly looked at, » Hamlin said. « And that was just simply because of what his peer reviews were. I had lunch with three of his previous teammates — just to vet him out because I’ve been on the racetrack with him — but I didn’t know how he was behind closed doors.

« And so I vetted him out with three of his teammates, and they all unanimously said that he’s absolutely the person you have to have. »

Busch didn’t know about the vetting process until afterward. But he also didn’t have any concerns what former teammates would say.

« I’m curious if there was, like, a funny moment of, ‘No, this isn’t the right guy,’ » Busch said with a laugh. « But I’m pretty sure I got thumbs-up everywhere. »

In addition to his wining pedigree, Busch’s knowledge of cars and input on setups make him a valuable commodity. His fiery personality has led to run-ins throughout his career, but no one can argue with the fact that he collects trophies.

« There’s that time that I went through, where … media is thrashing me in this way or that way, » Busch said. « But I think all along, people with a [NASCAR team] hard card that work on cars, that developed teams, always knew who my soul was.

« And with Monster Energy, over the last decade racing with them, they’ve given me the confidence to be myself without having to look over my shoulder. »

Despite all the vetting, Hamlin didn’t really know Busch’s talents until a test in November at which Hamlin struggled with his Joe Gibbs Racing car while Busch ran faster in the 23XI car.

« We get in the same equipment, like we were at the Charlotte test, [and] it’s like, ‘Wow, this guy is better than I expected,’ » Hamlin said. « Like, he’s really, really talented. He’s the ageless wonder. »

Another key addition came to the team on the coattails of Busch. Crew chief Billy Scott and Busch had worked together at SHR and felt they had some unfinished business.

But Hamlin wanted Scott for an additional reason. For the past two years, Scott has focused on the development of NASCAR’s new Next Gen car, heading the project at Richard Childress Racing.

« Both of them said that when they worked with each other, it was the best years of their career, the best time that they had, » Hamlin said. « And then on top of that, I’m like, ‘I can get a guy who has a lot of knowledge about the Next Gen.’

« My Next Gen car at the Charlotte test [in November], I couldn’t even drive it for the first four hours because I had all kinds of issues. And he’s like, ‘Oh, you guys fix this, that and the other, and it’ll fix it.’ And it fixes it. »

For his part, Scott is relishing the opportunity. He has one career win — with Busch — in 214 races as a crew chief. The year he worked with Busch, they finished seventh in the standings with an average starting spot of 8.8 and an average finish of 12.1.

« My role here is intended to go beyond just crew chiefing to … just being a part of the engineering staff as a whole, and that is certainly appealing, » Scott said.

« And then to top that off, for sure, when you look at going back with Kurt, that was kind of a no-brainer in my mind and was maybe the icing on the cake. »

The competition side: Bubba

The team will try to have a one-team, two-car concept. It has had both crews at some of the tests, even when Wallace couldn’t participate because of offseason shoulder surgery.

« While everything didn’t go perfect, everyone worked really well together, » said competition director Mike Wheeler, who served as crew chief for Wallace until Bootie Barker moved into that role in August.

« That was good to see. We still got a lot of projects internally to work on as far as improving our shop-based efforts, race-support efforts, at-the-race-track projects to make sure we’re doing everything. It’s a never-ending task. »

There remains a focus on analytics. Hamlin stresses that, and Wallace continues to learn how to digest the data that shows strengths and weaknesses, as far as where he gains and loses positions throughout a race, and how to take the data and apply it to his race craft.

« He’s all about his data and analytics, » Wallace said of Hamlin. « It’s kind of been the theme so far. Kurt and I have been trying to grasp on to that. He’s competitive.

« He’s making sure that we have the exact same stuff that they have at JGR, so we don’t leave a stone unturned, and we can share similar race feedback post-race meetings and stuff. He’s on top of things. He’s the boots-on-the-ground owner, making sure the i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed. »

Wallace knows he will learn from Busch. The 28-year-old will also have to deflect criticism when compared to one of the sport’s top drivers over the past two decades.

« He is definitely ahead of me, » Wallace said. « Being able to learn from that and play catchup as quick as I can, he’s going to push me to be better. »

Wallace could perform better and still run worse than Busch, a dynamic that could challenge the one-team, two-car concept.

« While we are one team across both cars, we’ve got to make sure that they are separate teams doing what they need to do to improve, and the definition of improvement, the definition of success, is going to be built by those individuals on those teams, » team president Steve Lauletta said.

« And I think everybody’s focus is smart enough to figure out what that looks like. »

The business and operations side

Lauletta joined the organization in fall 2020 to help launch the team. A former marketing executive at Miller and team president at Chip Ganassi Racing, Lauletta had left the full-time racing world to run his own sports marketing and administrative consultant business. He didn’t envision another full-time job in racing.

But his experience and availability, as well as his solid reputation, made him the perfect fit to launch 23XI Racing. And he has stuck around since then.

« The interest level in the team, from a business standpoint, is still really strong, » Lauletta said. « The people we brought on board are fantastic, and working together across both teams, all of those things, are the building blocks of where we will be going over the next several years.

« Now we’ve got to make steps on the track. We’ve got to prove that we can compete week in and week out, which we didn’t necessarily do every race last year. We had a lot of mistakes that took us out of races and things that we had to learn. »

The challenge for this organization doubles as its strength. It has a driver as a co-owner, but the driver works for another organization. It has an icon as a co-owner, but with that comes expectations and an additional spotlight.

In late 2020, while forming the team, Hamlin would go to the shop three or four days a week. During the season, he typically goes to the shop on Tuesdays and then parts of another day or two, depending on the meeting schedule.

Hamlin has called Wheeler late at night with ideas. Wheeler said team management tries to give Hamlin some space during the season, especially during the playoffs.

« We’re making sure we don’t stress Denny out and let him drive, » Wheeler said. « There’s things we’re just going to do as leaders of the team that we don’t need the owner to worry about.

« That was definitely true in the playoffs. We didn’t worry about little details about things. We asked him opinions about hauler layouts and color schemes but not about minor personnel changes. I never see him stressed out at the shop. »

Lauletta said once Hamlin retires from driving — and there’s no indication he has any desire retire — he has the potential to emerge as one of the best owners in the sport.

« He’s there every time I have a question or need anything, » Lauletta said. « He’s learning the business side. He’s obviously very, very experienced and knowledgeable on the competition side, which helps us a ton.

« He is a good car owner. He’s going to be a fantastic car owner. … He can’t focus on it right now 100 percent because his job is as a driver. And so there’s that level of when he moves to being a car owner 100 percent, he’s going to be fantastic. »

Hamlin said that for him, the racing offseason is the pivotal time for him to handle the race team he owns, rather the one with which he makes his living.

« My offseason is when the season starts because we’ve now built the infrastructure, we hired the people, we got the driver, we’ve got the sponsors, all that is done and is done mostly during the offseason of each year, » Hamlin said.

« And now when the season starts, it’s up to them to go execute. »

Hamlin watches his current owner, Joe Gibbs, and wants to match that work ethic. He still eyes more expansion. He doesn’t know when he could take the organization into a three-car team. Or maybe even a four-car team. But he has a list of his drivers and crew members with the years their contracts end to know when he needs to start recruiting.

« Three [cars] is a good number to kind of live around for to be not too big to have a slow boat, but three’s enough to get the efficiencies out of scaling, » Wheeler said. « That’s something that definitely we’re working on, making sure we scale appropriately.

« We’re basically about 60 people right now, all hired in the last 14 months. And some of those people have never been in racing before. »

What Hamlin sees: a group that still has the same enthusiasm as a year ago.

« We continue to push the edges, whether it be dropping different streetwear, signing a new championship driver, having a great sponsor that comes along with that, Hamlin said.

« There’s a lot of excitement. And I’m seeing this grow: The conference rooms are getting bigger. The amount of people that are participating is getting bigger. There is a lot of experience that we’ve hired in the offseason, and this is all just building toward this five-year plan of being an elite team that I hope to be. »

The Jordan effect

Hamlin might have a five-year plan, but he also has the blood of a competitor. Same goes with his famous co-owner.

And Jordan has said he got into this business to win. 

« If you’re asking me, I want to win tomorrow, as soon as we get on the track, » Jordan told FOX Sports when the team launched. « I know it is a process. It’s a process, and you’re going to have to learn it. 

« But if every step, each day, you move toward winning the day, [and] tomorrow is better than the day yesterday, I have hope. But if you start going backward, then you lose that hope. I know that it’s time that I’m patient. I’m absolutely patient. »

So far, the pressure of running as the team that carries the Jordan brand logo doesn’t appear to overwhelm the organization.

Most of the team’s leadership and the drivers have learned throughout their careers to handle the spotlight. Wallace has faced extensive media coverage and public scrutiny since he entered the sport, and that continues with him being the only Black full-time driver in the Cup Series. His social media mentions remain a polarizing place, given his advocacy for social justice.

« All the pressure comes from within, » Wallace said.

« I know MJ is there. I got him his first win. I told Kurt that — I’m glad I got that before he came over and got that. We got that out of the way. So that is a lot of pressure gone. »

Obviously, Hamlin and Lauletta have had talks with the team. Any other new organization that had a relatively young driver in Wallace and averaged a top-20 finish in races might call that a solid season.

But with Hamlin — who ranks tied for 17th on the NASCAR all-time wins list, with 46 — and Jordan as co-owners, it wasn’t viewed as a good season.

« It’s definitely not a bad thing, » Lauletta said. « It raises everybody’s attention to detail and desire, and they know that, that the opportunity is there for them to succeed.

« And so it’s on us to put it all together and limit mistakes and take advantage of every opportunity, every tool that we have, Look, we have everything we need. So now we have to go execute. That’s the expectation that we will do that. »

The conversations with Jordan often focus on execution. Those inside 23XI say Jordan’s style focuses on looking forward and wanting to know the plan to improve, rather than the reasons for failure.

When the team failed NASCAR’s pre-race technical inspection for its debut at Daytona, Jordan texted Wheeler about moving on and having a strategy for starting at the rear of the field.

« Denny could see the small gains and goals we were hitting weekly or monthly, » Wheeler said. « And MJ was great because he realized that no matter what just happened, it is about what you are going to do going forward. »

Those inside 23XI might have started to get comfortable representing Jordan, but the one who gets the direct calls after a bad day is his friend. Still, one would think that even when he’s your friend, Michael Jordan popping up on the caller ID would rattle the nerves.

« I know that I’ve got to be prepared, » Hamlin said. « Any conversations that I have with Michael or his team, you have to be prepared, you have to have the answers when they want to have answers.

« It was a struggle sometimes last year, where it would be Sunday night or Monday, and I hadn’t even digested the 23XI team and their day yet. »

Because he spends his Tuesdays at 23XI, Hamlin sometimes doesn’t know the ins and outs of their race until then.

« Usually Tuesday is my day to kind of start working on that program and figure out what we need to do better over there, » Hamlin said. « So, sometimes I was a little nervous because I didn’t always have the answers that they were looking for because I was busy working on my own 11 car. »

Busch didn’t wait for one of those questioning phone calls. After he failed to make the main event in the preseason Clash two weeks ago, he took it in his own hands to contact Jordan.

« I texted him afterward that Charles Barkley gif. It was when he goes, ‘Terrrrible, terrrible,’ » Busch said. « So I texted that to MJ to just kind of clear the air, like, you can get with me anytime, and you’re going to get a straight-up, honest answer.

« And he said, ‘What are you going to do to fix it?’ I said, ‘I’m headed to the race shop tomorrow morning, simulator Wednesday. Our work is never done here.’ »

As a Chicago sports fan, Busch says he feels a similarity between his mission and Jordan’s.

« It starts right here, » he said, pointing at his heart. « He wants me to do the same thing that he did. And that’s to make everybody around you better because ultimately, that makes the whole clubhouse — the racetrack, the hauler, the race shop — everybody gets better. »

For his part, Wallace has had one major celebratory call from Jordan — after the Talladega win, of course.

Just thinking about it makes Wallace smile.

« He was just proud, just proud of me and the team and what we were able to do, » he said. « For him to jump into the sport and be so invested in the way he is. It’s typical MJ fashion — he wants to succeed at it.

« So for me and our team, the 23 team, to be able to capitalize on the opportunity and to go out and get the first win was special for our team. »

Certainly, the team hopes for more of those celebratory phone calls in the future. And Hamlin plans to continue the friendly phone calls he has gotten from Jordan for years.

« Our friendship is so deep that I don’t think anything business would ever kind of get in the way of that, » Hamlin said. « I got to play golf with him in the offseason at one of the member events at the club that he has, and we sat down, and we talked racing a lot.

« There were many, many celebrities and other athletes there, and he just pulled up a chair and wanted to talk racing. So, I think that friendship and that bond that we have kind of outside of business is deeper than anything we have in business. »

Bob Pockrass has spent decades covering motorsports, including the past 30 Daytona 500s. He joined FOX Sports in 2019 following stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @bobpockrass. Looking for more NASCAR content? Sign up for the FOX Sports NASCAR Newsletter with Bob Pockrass!

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