Denny Hamlin was the first NASCAR athlete to be sponsored by the Jordan brand, and that’s how his relationship with Michael Jordan started. However, once Hamlin supposedly read an article that speculated that the two could be moving towards creating their own NASCAR team, and that piqued Hamlin’s interest in talking to the NBA legend about the idea.

Hamlin stated, “I’ll never forget, I was on the ninth hole of my home golf course and I was like, ‘Should I send Michael this article? Let me get his temperature here. And I sent it to him and he responded immediately, says ‘Haha, obviously fake news, not real, but if you want to make it real news let me know?'”

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That was how 23XI Racing, a 150 million dollar team, was born. A simple fake news report got the two athletes to come together and make it a reality.

Denny Hamlin believes that Kurt Busch might make a return in 2023

Following the Pocono qualification incident with Kurt Busch, it has been quite a few races since he was last seen racing. As he heals from his brain injury following the impact, 23XI Racing’s co-owner, Denny Hamlin thinks that Busch might return to racing next season.

23XI has stated that they will be ready in case Kurt Busch decides to return in 2023. In a statement, Hamlin said, “We still feel like Kurt’s going to run next year and if he doesn’t, we’ve already got contingency plans for the 45 car.”

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While Kyle Busch made the jump to RCR, taking over Tyler Reddick’s car, uncertainty hovers over Reddick’s future. There could be a chance that if Kurt Busch decided to retire, 23XI Racing could perhaps get Tyler Reddick a year early.

However, as there has been no news to indicate which car Reddick would be driving, it would be in everyone’s best interest to wait for an official statement from RCR.