FANTASY NASCAR Racin

MICHAEL JORDAN - 2/17/1963 -
DENNY HAMLIN - 11/18/1980 -
NBA legend Michael Jordan and three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin today announced the formation of a new NASCAR Cup Series race team that will begin competition for the 2021 season. Rising NASCAR star Bubba Wallace has signed a multi-year deal to drive for the yet-to-be-named, single car team. Jordan will serve as principal owner of the new team with Hamlin as a minority partner while he continues to drive the #11 Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing. With the completed purchase of a NASCAR team charter from Germain Racing, Jordan becomes the first Black majority owner of a full-time race team in NASCAR’s premier series since NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee Wendell Scott owned and raced his own car

from the 1960s into the early 1970s. "Starting a race team has been something that Michael and I have talked about while playing golf together over the years, but the timing or circumstances were never really right," said the 39-year-old Hamlin. "It just makes sense now to lay the foundation for my racing career after I’m done driving and also help an up-and-coming driver like Bubba Wallace take his career to a higher level. Darrell “Bubba” Wallace Jr. is currently NASCAR’s lone African-American driver. The 26-year-old has six total career NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors

Truck Series wins, becoming the first African-American driver in nearly 50 years to win a NASCAR national series race when he went to victory lane at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway in 2013 (Wendell Scott won a NASCAR Cup race in 1964). The team will be named 23XI Racing. 23 was the number Jordan wore while playing basketball; while "XI" is roman numeral "11" when is Hamlin's race car number. When 2021 kicked off everyone expected the usual “new team” growing pains. Some races Wallace would look good, and others he looked like a raw rookie. It took until race 13 at Dover before he had a finish better then 15th. It was race nineteen, at Pocono, before he got a Top 10, where he achieved a fifth place finish. He always seems to look good on the Super

Speedway tracks. He finished second at Daytona in August, when he helped Ryan Blaney draft past Chris Buescher with two laps to go. The next trip to a big track was at Talladega. Weather was imminent. Black clouds moved in, and rain was certain to fall shortly. The race had started late; and if it rained again, it would be dark before the track could be dried. Somehow, Wallace found himself in the lead after Kurt Busch had pushed him to the front. Then there was a big crash on the back stretch that would certainly take a while to clean up. Before they could get the track clean; the skies opened up in a torrent of rain. The race was called official; and Wallace had claimed his first career Cup win. Wallace also made starts in the Truck Series and the Xfinity Series. He drove his car to a tenth

place finish at Michigan. and he also drove the dirt race in the Trucks to get some experience for the Cup race. He finished eleventh in the truck. The biggest news for 23XI Racing was that the team purchased another Charter and hired Kurt Busch to come drive a second team car. It was branded the #45 (another number Jordan used in the NBA) It is anticipated with the many years of experience Busch has, he would be able to help with race car set ups; especially with the new NextGen cars coming in 2022. They were right. The 44-year-old won a race and helped mentor Wallace to the best season of his career, including a win of his own. After Bubba Wallace opened the season and came up just feet short of winning the Daytona 500, Kurt Busch proved early on that his move to

23XI Racing was a good one. In the first five races, he scored three top-10 finishes, including a fifth at Phoenix and third at Atlanta. In early May, Busch earned his 34th career Cup win and first with his new team at Kansas, outdueling Kyle Larson for the victory. He showed that same speed throughout the month, scoring a third-place finish at Gateway and a runner-up at Nashville. In late July, Kurt Busch backed his #45 car into the wall during qualifying at Pocono. Ty Gibbs was called upon to fill the seat for Busch the rest of the year. No one could have

imagined that lone impact would have the impact it had on the driver, the team, and the entire garage. Busch never strapped on his helmet again and missed the seasons final 16 races with a concussion. His injury brought attention to the car’s overall safety, specifically those rear impacts. In October in Las Vegas, the driver announced he was retiring from full-time racing. Kurt Busch lived up to the billing and helped elevate 23XI Racing with a win while offering counsel to the younger Wallace, which allowed the driver to achieve the best season of his career. Wallace was average for the first half of the season and didn’t score his second top-10 result until his teammate won at Kansas.

However, during the back end of the year, the 29-year-old driver came to life with Busch’s guidance, and recorded a career-best eight top-10 finishes for the season (half of them top 5s), including his second career win in the second run of the year at Kansas. After Busch's concussion; team co-owner Denny Hamlin (and others) had been constantly out-spoken and negative about the new cars design and how it was too "stiff" causing greater impacts for the drivers inside the cockpit. The same weekend Busch made his announcement; Wallace made headlines for his bad on-track decision and actions that followed, when Wallace deliberately wrecked Kyle Larson after being squeezed into the fence. Wallace then exited his car, and confronted the

Hendrick Motorsports driver in the infield grass, where he proceeded to push him numerous times, before ignoring a NASCAR safety official's orders and walking back to the infield care center. Larson ran 3-wide into the corner, and as he passed Wallace coming off turn four; Wallace's car lost it's aero downforce and got into the wall. Wallace showed his displeasure with Larson's move by running him down to the grass on the front straight, and then hooking Larson in the right rear causing his to crash had into the outside wall. Wallace's actions also took out competitor Christopher Bell. NASCAR; in turn; showed their displeasure with Wallace by suspending him from the next race. A sentence most everyone called 'to lenient" for his actions. Most thought he should have been suspended for

the rest of the season (four races). Wallace’s incident and subsequent behavior at Las Vegas was not a good look for the organization, as team co-owner Hamlin admitted; especially after Hamlin had been so vocal about injuries from accidents. The team has room for improvement. Tyler Reddick is leaving Richard Childress Racing to come over and drive the #45 in 2023. Reddick claimed his first Cup win at Road America and would go to victory lane twice more before the season's end. 23XI Racing added two more wins in 2023. Tyler Reddick made the transition over from RCR to run for 23XI and had a good season. Reddick would win at COTA to lock himself into the Chase. He would win again later in the season at Kansas during the Round of 16, advancing himself into the next round. In the Round of 8 he had a great start, finishing eighth and third the first two races, but at Martinsville he couldn’t keep pace and finished 26th, eliminating him from a shot at the championship. Meanwhile, teammate Bubba Wallace had slightly worse results for the season than he had in 2022. He again had five top five finishes, but only had ten top tens compared to the 16 in 2022. Wallace’s best run came at Texas when he finished third. Both drivers will be back with 23XI in 2024.