23XI Racing driver, Bubba Wallace held off the Championship contender and the owner of his own team, Denny Hamlin, on the finishing laps for his second career victory in Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas on Sunday.

The NASCAR Cup Series driver, Wallace, took the #45 car to the victory lane of Kansas Speedway for the second time this year. Earlier in May, Kurt Busch booked his spot in the #45 car by winning at the same Speedway.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver, Hamlin, was almost a second short from automatically booking his spot in the second round of NASCAR playoffs.

In the post-race interview, #11 driver of JGR said, “Yeah, I mean, I nearly wrecked trying to catch him off (Turn) 4. I got bad loose and hit the fence but I was driving as hard as I could.”

The owner of 23XI Racing also responded, “Nothing will ever come free when you’re driving for me. If you think I’m going to let you win, you better go get another job.”

When asked if Hamlin had caught Wallace, would he have crossed him?

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Although, the owner of 23XI struggled in the first half of the race. But managed to gain momentum in the final stage of the race.

Struggles faced by Denny Hamlin in the Playoffs race

Even though the NASCAR Cup Series driver placed himself second in the race at Kansas. Hamlin wasn’t happy with the execution that took place in the first half of the race.

In the early part of the first stage, the #11 team of Joe Gibbs Racing was penalized with equipment interference at the pit stop, because of which he had to restart from the back of the field.

The #11 driver also struggled with the qualifying, which took place on Saturday and made him start on the 25th place.

Devastated but naturally happy #11 driver in the post-race said, “I’m just frustrated with the first half of the race. We just weren’t executing all that well. I’m really happy for our No. 11 Toyota team. They really stepped up the last half (of the race). We made the car quite a bit better,”

He was also happy about the results from the racing team owned by him and NBA legend Michael Jordan.

Hamlin added, “I’m just really happy with the outcome and really happy for the No. 45 and Bubba Wallace and Bootie (Barker, crew chief). Bubba has really worked on his craft. We’ve given him fast race cars and now he’s shown them what he’s got.”

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Although Denny Hamlin had an impressive result in the weekend’s playoffs. He’s still third in the standing ahead of the final race of the first round at Bristol Motor Speedway.