One aspect of the Daytona 500 is old hat to Denny Hamlin—winning it.
But there’s a new aspect to this year’s race, which Hamlin is attempting to win for an unprecedented third straight time. When he takes to the track on Sunday, he’ll do so not only as a competitor but also as a car owner.
During the offseason, Hamlin partnered with former NBA megastar Michael Jordan to form 23XI Racing—the name an amalgam of Jordan’s basketball jersey number (23) and Hamlin’s No. 11 car number at Joe Gibbs Racing, expressed in Roman numerals.
Affiliated with JGR, the organization hired Bubba Wallace to drive the No. 23 Toyota, giving Hamlin two rooting interests in the Great American Race. First and foremost is Hamlin’s own quest for the three-peat at the Birthplace of Speed (2:30 p.m. ET Sunday on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
When the green flag waved at Daytona five years ago, Hamlin had no Daytona 500 wins. But after taking the checkered flag in the 2016 race, he followed with consecutive victories in 2019 and 2020. No driver has ever won three straight.
“This is a big opportunity for us and my team and myself personally,” Hamlin said. “It’s just I never would have imagined that we’d be in this position by any means, especially five years ago when we didn’t have any.
“I always think about all the ones that slipped away that I had in control and didn’t make the right decision at the end to finish it off. It would be by far my biggest victory of my career and one that I probably wouldn’t exchange for anything.” 
Despite the high profile of 23XI Racing, Hamlin doesn’t think his new status as a car owner will be a distraction.
“For myself, I felt like February 1 was the date where I’m kind of done on the day-to-day for 23XI, and I just think that now my focus is really on the No. 11 FedEx team and how we can win a lot of races and win a championship,” said Hamlin, who posted seven victories and finished fourth in the final standings last year.
“This is where my focus is now. I’ll spend a day or a day and a half during the week that I typically would have off in the middle of the week that will be my time to concentrate on 23XI, but my preparation time, my post-race time will be unchanged here on the driver’s side.”
For the sixth time in the last seven years, a Hendrick Motorsports driver will start on the pole for the Great American Race. Alex Bowman dusted teammate William Byron for the top starting spot in what might be a mixed blessing.
Both Bowman and Byron are locked into the front row, but statistics don’t favor the top two starters in the Daytona 500. The last driver to win the from the pole was Dale Jarrett in 2000. Jarrett also was the last driver to win from the outside of the front row—in 1993.
Source: Reid Spencer | NASCAR Wire Service
