Denny Hamlin Confesses It’s “Painful” to See 23XI Racing’s Struggle

Joe Gibbs Racing veteran Denny Hamlin has shared his disappointment about his team 23XI Racing’s poor performance on Sunday.

Denny Hamlin Confesses It’s “Painful” to See 23XI Racing’s Struggle

Denny Hamlin and Bubba Wallace (Via IMAGO)

The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series hasn’t been kind to Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin’s 23XI Racing on and off the track. They received back-to-back losses in the court over the charter lawsuit and has painfully come close to multiple wins, only to miss out of them. The most recent example of their struggle was the Pocono race weekend on Sunday, where none of their raced finished inside top 30.

Riley Herbst and Bubba Wallace wrecked out on stage one of the race, due to break failures. This forced the team to pit Tyler Reddick and check his car, killing their momentum. The team co-owner Denny Hamlin, on the latest episode of the podcast shared his heartbreak about the situation, considering his JGR Toyota, that has similar features was among the best cars of the day.

I don’t know what’s going on over there, but typically when JGR doesn’t have brake issues, 23XI does and I don’t know why. I wish I could give you more insight on it. They obviously all three had brake issues and we’ve got to figure that out. They had things going very well, but it’s painful right now.

Denny Hamlin said Actions Detrimental.

All the 23XI Racing are built with the help of Joe Gibbs Racing’s technical support and the break rooter issue has been one of the biggest hurdles the TRD teams have been facing in the Next-Gen era. This put Hamlin, a JGR driver, in a tough position as he is pretty confused about how both the teams are getting in this mess very often.

No. I’m looking at 23XI versus JGR saying, ‘What the hell.’ That’s what I’m looking at. I can’t compare different manufacturers, different stuff. I can compare what I know our resources are and I can’t say it’s speed.

Denny Hamlin added.

Further talking on the topic, the veteran asserted that the team were pretty good coming into the weekend, with strong practice and unlucky qualification run that showed potential. But as the race started things went south for them, for reasons beyond the control of the drivers, putting a lot of pressure on the crew.

Maybe a little bit of it is speed, but both our cars were good in practice. The 23 was going to qualify well, the 45 did qualify well. It’s just other stuff. They cannot put together races. Like, from green to checkered. It’s not one person or one thing.

Denny Hamlin asserted.

Denny Hamlin no-longer worried about Bubba Wallace’s attitude

One of the major issues 23XI had in the past after poor race weekends has been dealing with Bubba Wallace negative attitude and self-loathing. But he has improved a lot in that aspect this year and Denny Hamlin really appreciate this change from his driver.

Denny Hamlin and Bubba Wallace
Denny Hamlin and Bubba Wallace (Via IMAGO)

Mechanicals just killed the 23 this week. Other people’s wrecks have killed the 23 over the last few weeks. Nothing he’s doing. What I really appreciate is Bubba Wallace’s attitude. I mean, a 180. Weeks like this, it would have to be full therapy mode in past years.

Denny Hamlin said.

One of the major reasons behind this change was possibly him becoming a father this year, that ahs brought in more positivity to his life and encourage him to be better. This helps the team shift the focus to just on the car, and let Wallace handles himself.

But I really appreciate [his attitude]. It makes it so much easier for us to fix these problems while we’re not trying to fix an attitude problem as well. It just makes it easier. It’s on us to step up for him, at this point.

Denny Hamlin added.

The comments from Denny Hamlin shows both the growth of Wallace as person as well as how much more confidence he now has on his team to help them get back on winning form. It would be interesting to see how everything is going to playout for the team in the coming weekends.

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