Tyler Reddick Declares Denny Hamlin “Deserves a Lot of Credit” for 23XI Racing’s 2026 Dominance

Veteran Tyler Reddick has detailed the credit Denny Hamlin deserves for his team 23XI Racing’s dominant start to 2026.

Tyler Reddick Declares Denny Hamlin “Deserves a Lot of Credit” for 23XI Racing’s 2026 Dominance

Denny Hamlin and Tyler Reddick (Via IMAGO)

The start of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season has been marked with the absolute domination of 23XI Racing and Tyler Reddick. Winning first three races of the season, the No:45 Toyota racer made history and took huge lead in the championship table. Team co-owner and NBA legend Michael Jordan has been getting a lot praise for the racer’s success.

But the same time, many seems to have forgotten the contributions of 23XI Racing co-owner and Joe Gibbs Racing veteran racer Denny Hamlin. Reddick has recently addressed this and highlighted how much credits does the veteran deserves for his domination this season. The team effort of the owner duo is the key to their success.

Everyone’s been talking about Michael throughout this. And I think I could be wrong, but how I look at that is. You know, Denny Hamlin deserves a lot of credit, too. You know, like what they started here together, the ownership group they put together uh to what make 23XI what it is today. It takes a group effort. It really does. I think what he’s referring to there is just, you know, Denny’s played a massive role um in in 23XI being what it is today.

Tyler Reddick said in a recent interview.

Further talking about the point, the two times second division champion explained how actively Denny Hamlin is involved with the team, despite having his own racing career to be focused on. He has been hands on the development of 23XI’s mega trace shop Airspeed and Tyler Reddick was really impressed with the hands-on approach of the legend.

I remember a couple years ago when we were they were in the process of breaking ground for Airspeed. you know, Denny was walking me through everything like he was so hands-on in the layout, the design um of Airspeed… He was like, ‘Look at this. We got this. It’s going to go here. It’s going to feed into this.’ Like, he was just so excited about it and he was so hands-on in the process of building air speed.

Tyler Reddick asserted via CNBC TV.

Michael Jordan’s bold jab was the motivation Tyler Reddick needed at Superspeedways

In the same interview, the ex-RCR driver talked about how Michael Jordan is always motivating force behind his success. He recalled one of the past interactions that made his work extra hard on his racing in Superspeedways.

Tyler Reddick and Michael Jordan
Tyler Reddick and Michael Jordan (Via @TylerReddick/X)

MJ once took a jab at him over his poor Superspeedway record and that motivated him to not disappoint his boss again. They were able to win at Talladega in 2024 to end his streak and this season won twice in similar tracks, establishing himself as one of the experts.

I just remember he asked me what how I thought it was going to go and was like ‘I mean I think we know how it’s going to go. You kind of suck on super speedways.’ He kind of put it like that and um he was just you know he’s giving me a jab but he wasn’t wrong.  I used it as motivation to like, ‘okay, like I can’t I can’t be disappointing the boss like this.

Tyler Reddick said.

The comments from the veteran racer shows how the deep involvement of MJ and Hamlin is leading the team for huge success. 23XI has everything, from investments to top drivers to win a Cup championship. It would be interesting to see how long it would take them to do it.

Also Read: RFK Racing Set to Honor Greg Biffle With Special Darlington Throwback