Denny Hamlin believes he and Michael Jordan’s $16M investment will overcome 23XI’s fatal flaws

Denny Hamlin’s 23XI Racing team is no stranger to track issues. Even if the driver and car pass all inspections, pit crews make mistakes. In the most recent event, Tyler Reddick found a solid chance to win the Las Vegas race slipping through his fingers 13 seconds after pitting. Even Bubba Wallace was hampered by his team’s inability to remove the lug nut from his left front wheel. However, things may be looking up for the team now that they have a shiny new office space. Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan have invested heavily in Airspeed, and this might finally be the answer to their prayers.

Denny Hamlin eager to eliminate pitstop issues

Pit crew issues have plagued the 23XI fleet for years. Back in 2022, loose wheels robbed Bubba Wallace of many race wins. At the Nashville race in June, his team discovered a loose wheel during a pit stop. This prompted the crew to flag Bubba for one more stop to tighten it up. This command cost him a full lap.

One reason is that the team once leased a crew member from Joe Gibbs Racing. All resources and training also take place at the latter team’s facilities. Now, they’ve been honing their pit crew while also completing the $16 million Airspeed facility.

Denny Hamlin recently talked about the pit crew on his podcast, Harmful Action. “Even in our fourth year and now our second year with our own pit crew, it’s not easy… Believe me, if we can go out and record the best pit crew – you Just can’t do it, it’s not that easy. I feel like we have a good group of guys there. It’s not the team we had last year, either. “We brought in new guys last year on No. 23 and No. 45. “

I then emphasized that AirSpeed ​​is still a work in progress. “Our pit facility itself, where we’re going to do our pits, that might not even be done until July. So we’re still at JGR right now. When we’re at JGR, we have a limited amount of time. We don’t have the time that other people have. There’s so much time because we’re not in the house, right. So we have to share the facility. We’re building our own, and it’s going to be absolutely amazing, like the actual airspeed at headquarters. But it’s going to take time. So , we will work on this over the next six months until we can get some representation in our place.”

The 23XI Racing team is quickly building a state-of-the-art home where they can work autonomously. However, all the missed opportunities to win the race did come back to haunt the team.

Tyler Reddick got emotional at Michigan last year

What hurts more than losing a game is losing the game knowing you gave it your best but some external factor got in the way. That’s how Tyler Reddick felt during last August’s Michigan game. The team was making the lug nuts while the car needed gas. There was also a loose wheel that dropped Reddick to 30th place.

Redick didn’t mince words on the air, where he lashed out at his pit crew.

Denny Hamlin backed Redick’s emotional outburst, emphasizing that sometimes it’s necessary.

“It’s really a balance, but some of the best leaders can be tough on their people at times,” Hamlin said. “I just think sometimes you have to face reality and you have to live or die based on the results you get. I love all 10 of our employees, but we’re always trying to keep our jobs – racers are, maintenance is So do the station staff.”

The 23XI team worked overtime to improve their quality. Let’s take a look at how pit crews work to reverse their reputation for crashing during races.