Hamlin opens up on 23XI Racing-NASCAR relationship | Sports News

Denny Hamlin pulled back the curtain on 23XI Racing’s relationship with NASCAR following the 2 sides’ contentious courtroom battle.

In October 2024, 23XI — which was based 4 years earlier by Hamlin, NBA legend Michael Jordan and his business accomplice Curtis Polk — filed a joint antitrust lawsuit with Front Row Motorsports proprietor Bob Jenkins in opposition to NASCAR CEO Jim France in North Carolina’s federal courtroom. The swimsuit accused the sanctioning physique of “unlawful monopolization of premier stock car racing in order to enrich themselves at the expense of the premier stock car racing teams.”

Central to the legal dispute was a disagreement over allegedly “anti-competitive” constitution agreements, which perform as franchises and guarantee groups computerized beginning positions and income sharing from media rights offers. Before the trial’s ninth day kicked off in US District Court in Charlotte, North Carolina final December, each events got here to an settlement granting all groups “evergreen” or “permanent” charters.

Furthermore, all 15 Cup Series groups secured a share of worldwide income for the primary time, together with a third of new business agreements associated to Intellectual Property (IP). The three-strike rule additionally elevated to 5 strikes, which supplies groups higher affect in decision-making processes.

With the legal dispute now a distant reminiscence, Hamlin asserted that 23XI and NASCAR are back on good phrases. “It’s been a really good working relationship, and they’ve (NASCAR) delivered on everything they promised us,” he stated.

NASCAR has moreover opened more traces of communication between itself and workforce homeowners, with Hamlin being allowed to affix the competitors committee and gain a seat on the Race Team Alliance board of administrators.

“I’ve had quite a bit of dialogue with (NASCAR CEO) Steve O’Donnell,” the 23-XI co-owner revealed. “They’ve allowed me to sit in on the new competition committee with Chad Knaus, Wally Brown, and Travis Geisler and a few others to make decisions on the next superspeedway package and things like that.”

Hamlin concluded by noting that NASCAR and 23XI each need the identical factor on the finish of the day, stating: “I want to see the sport succeed.”

This season, Hamlin has achieved no scarcity of particular person success whereas piloting the No. 11 Toyota. Across 18 races during the 2026 marketing campaign, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver has secured 4 victories, 11 top-10 finishes and 9 top-5s.

Despite settling for a P26 end in Sunday’s Toyota Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway, Hamlin nonetheless managed to steal the highest spot on the Cup Series leaderboard, one level forward of Tyler Reddick.

“I had a really fast car, top five car on speed,” Hamlin instructed TNT following the race. “Didn’t really have great restarts, giving up a couple in the first and about one after that. Got spun there, and once we got spun, I hit the nose and knocked the splitter off. Lost a lot of downforce, and struggled to run where we were at.”