The woes don’t seem to end for Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin’s 23XI Racing drivers, as the pit crew problem seems to persist for yet another week. Since its inception, Michael Jordan’s NASCAR team has surely exhibited enough potential to be considered a championship-contending team. This was also apparent in the 2023 Cup Series season when Tyler Reddick seized the team’s victory in COTA.

However, the only Achilles Heel that the two drivers seem to be concerned with is the pit crew problem. The teams always seem to fall short of executing the perfect pit strategy, which in turn seems to hurt the drivers as they are forced to give up on their track position and notch another victory to their name. The issue has been persistent enough that even the former Hendrick Motorsports crew chief, Steve Letarte, seems to snub the team members for giving away yet another victory in Michigan.

The former HMS crew chief slams 23XI Racing for their lack of communication

Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin’s $150 million team has laid down enough groundwork to ensure that the team is able to deliver impeccable performance and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with other established teams. The notion of building the team’s own pit crew rather than contracting with Joe Gibbs Racing was apparently a step forward in team building for the future.

However, the recent instances seem to reinforce the fact that the $150 million-worth team still has a long way to go in creating more efficient teamwork and leaving no room for gaffes. The incident that occurred on the track at Michigan for Tyler Reddick and his No. 45 team was perhaps the most glaring example of how perfect teamwork is essential to delivering the perfect result. Tyler Reddick had to wait more than nine seconds in order to take fuel, and the left rear tire was left loose, which had the potential to cause a wreck on the track.

Due to this fact, a furious Tyler Reddick lashed out at his team over his team radio. Even the former crew chief Steve Letarte stated in a conversation with Nate Ryan, “I look past pit road mistakes; nine or ten seconds is very hard, but when you are waiting on a fuel is inexcusable to have a tire change issue, inexcusable. It’s bad coaching, bad planning, bad communication something, either he didn’t know or he wasn’t coached to know, but it’s inexcusable for your jackman or your two tire changers.”

“Listen guys you can do this in nine seconds, I only need you to do it in 14. That’s 50% slower. That’s like- ‘Hey we are gonna go run a race and you take off sprinting. You only have to run a mile in under 20 minutes, I am just going to mosey my way down and I understand the situation, a total miss by the 45 team because they had the track position on the 17th.”

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Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin’s No. 45 heaves his frustration

With the on-track debacle that ensued on the pit road, Tyler Reddick dropped from leading the race to a 30th-place finish. The dejection was apparent in the voice of the No.45 Toyota driver in his interview with NASCAR.com, who had by far had one of the fastest Toyota cars and also the edge over other drivers in clinching another victory.

In the interview, Reddick exclaimed, “Yeah, we’ve definitely got to get better there. We’ve got to improve. It’s just tough when that’s a mistake that we’ve made before, in the same situation, honestly. Not the last stop of the race, for sure, but in the lead, cycling back to the lead. Certainly, it’s just, it’s tough to … we’ve just got to learn from our mistakes. We can’t afford to repeat them.”

“A lot of things have not went our way this year. We’ve made a lot of mistakes. I feel like we’ve learned from a lot of them, and we just have to learn from them because, again, we’ve made so many […] I’ve made some pretty bad mistakes the last couple of weeks as well inside the car that have cost us wins as well, and it’s just frustrating for sure to see them get away,” Reddick added.

Although Michael Jordan’s team’s No. 45 has seized a playoff berth, another win would surely put him at an advantage. It remains to be seen whether the team has learned its lessons or still has a long way to go.

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