Denny Hamlin Reveals Bubba Wallace Swap Is Inspired by Hendrick Motorsports Legend Getting “Kicked Off the Pit Road”

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin recently expressed his views on 23XI’s decision to swap the #45 Toyota Camry TRD. For the upcoming Owner’s Championship, 23XI’s Bubba Wallace will be swapping his #23 Toyota for the #45 of Kurt Busch. 

Since Kurt Busch’s health does not seem to get any better, the Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan-owned team decided to complete #45 Toyota’s season with Bubba Wallace. The Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington will mark the debut for Wallace with his new car. 

During an interview, Denny Hamlin was asked if he could explain the thinking behind the number adjustment. Further, the interviewer asked if this action was a way to give Bubba Wallace a chance to contend for the owner’s championship while experiencing a Playoff scenario. 

Hamlin explained that this was the first time an organization was going to be going for an owner’s championship. Further, he clarified that there was no particular driver associated with that. 

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Revealing what the exact thought process behind this was, Denny Hamlin said, “We felt like the best odds for us to kind of stack the deck and put our best foot forward. Whether it be driver and pit crew and crew members. We’re going to try to do the best we can and we’ve seen it in years past.”

Denny Hamlin Compares Bubba Wallace Swap to Legendary Hendrick Motorsports Incident

During the interview, Denny Hamlin compared the current scenario with the 2010 Hendrick Motorsports car swap. The incident took place on a Sunday NASCAR Sprint Cup race in Texas. He said that people still remember when Jimmie Johnson’s #48 team got kicked off the pit road and the team brought Jeff Gordon’s #24 team in.  

He further explained that the action displayed the team’s dedication to winning the race. He said, “The team coming in and saying that they were going to come in and put their best people forward to try to win a championship here. 23XI is doing the same thing. Only it’s including the driver and what not because with Kurt (Busch) out, it’s a lot of heavy lifting to ask Ty (Gibbs) at 19 years old to keep it off the fence for 500 miles at Darlington.”

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While talking about Ty Gibbs substituting for Kurt Busch, Hamlin explained why exactly Bubba Wallace was chosen. Saying that this probably was going to be a tough ask, Hamlin said, “So, we wanted to put our best and most experienced guy out there to give us a chance. To continue to move on and up in the standings.”