Denny Hamlin Believes His & Michael Jordan’s $16M Investment Would Conquer 23XI’s Fatal Flaw

Denny Hamlin-owned 23XI racing team is no stranger to on-track issues. Even when the driver and the car pass all checks, the pit crew slips up. In recent events, Tyler Reddick saw a solid chance of winning the Las Vegas race slip through his fingers after making a 13-second pit stop. Even Bubba Wallace got held up when his team could not get a lug nut off his left front wheel. However, things may be looking up for the team with a shiny new office space. Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan made a massive investment in Airspeed, which may finally be the answer to their prayers.

Denny Hamlin is eager to eliminate pit stop problems

Pit crew issues have plagued the 23XI team for years. Back in 2022, loose wheels snatched a lot of race victories from Bubba Wallace. In the Nashville race in June, his crew left a wheel loose during a pit stop. That prompted the crew to flag Bubba down for another stop to get it tightened. This ordeal cost him an entire lap.

Read More: “It’s a Fine if I Don’t”: Bubba Wallace Gives Details on the New 23XI Race Shop; First of Its Kind in 20 Years

One reason was that the team used to lease a crew from Joe Gibbs Racing. All the resources and training also happened in the latter team’s facility. Now they have been honing their own pit team, alongside perfecting the $16 million facility of Airspeed.

Denny Hamlin recently talked about the pit team on his podcast, Actions Detrimental. “Even in our 4th year, now our 2nd year of having our own pit crews, it is just not easy…trust me, if we could just go out and grab the best pit crew- you just can’t, it’s not that easy. I feel like we got a good set of guys there. This isn’t the same team that we had last year either. There were new guys brought in on each of the 23 and the 45 from last year.”

Then he emphasized that AirSpeed is still a work in progress. “Our pit facility itself, where we’ll do pit stops, that’s not even gonna be done till probably July. So we’re still at JGR right now. When we are at JGR, we get limited time. We don’t get as much time as others because we’re not the house guys, right. So we’re having to share facilities. We’re building our own, and it’s gonna be absolutely freaking amazing just like the actual airspeed is at the headquarters. But it takes time. So for the next six months we’re just gonna grind this out till we can get some reps on our own at our own spot.”

The 23XI Racing team is fast attaining a state-of-the-art home where they can autonomously conduct their operations. Yet all the missed opportunities to win races do come back to haunt the team.

Tyler Reddick exploded with emotion in Michigan last year

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What stings worse than losing a race is losing a race knowing you gave your best but some external factors hindered you. That is how Tyler Reddick felt at the Michigan race in August last year. The team was working on a lug nut, while the car needed to be filled with fuel. There was also a loose wheel that relegated Reddick to a 30th-place finish.

Reddick did not mince his words on the radio, where he blasted his pit people aggressively. 

Denny Hamlin backed Reddick’s emotional outburst, stressing that sometimes it’s necessary. “It’s a balance for sure but some of the best leaders are hard on their guys sometimes,” Hamlin said. “I just think that sometimes you have to face the music and you have to live and die by the result that you have. I love all 10 guys that we have but we’re always competing to keep our jobs — race car drivers are, pit crew guys are.”

The 23XI team is clocking in long hours to improve their disposition. Let us see how the pit crew members work to reverse their reputation of crashing a race.