The tally has been to 18 different winners this season after 23XI Racing driver Bubba Wallace didn’t let pass Denny Hamlin in the closing laps, and took his ride to the victory lane in Kansas Speedway on Sunday.

Wallace is the second driver who took the #45 car to victory this season. This was previously done by Kurt Busch in May this year before he picked up an injury during the qualifying at Pocono Raceway.

In a post-race NASCAR Media conference at Kansas with Bubba Wallace, Bootie Barker, and Denny Hamlin, the moderator at the conference asked Denny, “Are you surprised non-playoff drivers have won the first two races, and that combined with the 18 different winners this season, is that the kind of unpredictability you thought you would see?”

To which Hamlin said, “Yes. I mentioned it earlier this week that I thought that this could be the first potential year that somebody wins the race at Phoenix that’s not part of the Championship four.”

“I don’t know how long the list of new winners is going to get. We’re at 18 now.”

“Bob (Pockrass) can call me out. I said at Sonoma, there’s no frickin’ way that we even get to 14,” admitted Denny.

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In an interview in June this year, Bob Pockrass asked Hamlin if he had talked to Kurt Busch’s team about stages just in case there are more than 17 winners. Hamlin interrupted and said, “there’s not gonna be 17 winners.”

And later on added that “you’ll be lucky to have 14.”

Denny Hamlin handling two faces in NASCAR Cup Series

Denny Hamlin is the owner of 23XI Racing and #11 driver for Joe Gibbs Racing. The NASCAR Cup series driver is competing in the playoffs for the championship title for JGR and the owner’s championship for 23XI.

And recently in Sunday’s race in Kansas Speedway, #11 driver finished second, just behind Bubba Wallace’s #45 who he co-owns with NBA legend Michael Jordan.

Despite being the face of the two Racing teams, Hamlin gave the right answer when asked about the result of the playoffs race at Kansas Speedway in the post-race interview.

He said, “Nothing will ever come free when you’re driving for me. If you think I’m going to let you win, you better go get another job.”

Will there be a problem for the owner of 23XI in the future if he comes across a situation where he has to take a call in choosing either his #11 car or the #45 car he owns for the victory lane?

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All we can do is wait and watch how the future turns out for this NASCAR Cup series driver.