Denny Hamlin has reached a strange place in NASCAR where he’s no longer just a driver. He’s now part of the machine that runs the whole thing. Every weekend, he climbs into the No. 11 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing while also helping run 23XI Racing, the team he co-owns with Michael Jordan. Add in an antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR, a weekly podcast, and three full-time Cup Series teams under the 23XI banner, and Hamlin now carries influence far beyond the racetrack. That is what made his recent comments to Forbes stand out.

Hamlin was not speaking like someone trying to sell a message for either Joe Gibbs Racing or 23XI. Instead, his thoughts on the sport came from his 20 years’ worth of experience.

“You know, I’ve always kind of been this way,” Hamlin said. “I mean, if you ask my mother, she would say that she would prefer that I didn’t say some of the things that I said at times. But, you know, it’s just, it’s my personality, and I can’t change it.”

Hamlin’s personality is one of the reasons why his podcasts are so popular among fans. He launched the Actions Detrimental in 2023 through Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Dirty Mo Media, and it became one of NASCAR’s biggest weekly shows because he says the things most drivers avoid. Penalties, bad officiating calls, aero problems, playoff issues.

Hamlin talks about all of it without sounding like he’s reading corporate talking points. Apparently, NASCAR wasn’t thrilled at first.

“I said, listen, people tune in because they know that they’re going to get an honest take,” he explained. “It might not be the right take, but they’re going to get an honest take.”

“I said, you know, 80% of it is going to be great and fluff, and you’ll love it,” he said. “And there’s going to be 20% that you guys have got to be the big boys.”

Before 23XI Racing, Hamlin mostly saw NASCAR through a driver’s windshield. Now he sees the money, the politics, the sponsor pressure, the engineering side, and the behind-the-scenes negotiations that drivers usually don’t know much about. And 23XI wasn’t even supposed to happen the way it did.

The whole thing started with an internet rumor in 2020 claiming Jordan and Hamlin wanted to buy a NASCAR team together. Hamlin sent the article to Jordan, joking about “fake news.” Jordan’s response was basically: what if we actually did it?

At the same time, Bubba Wallace was about to hit free agency. Wallace had already become one of NASCAR’s most recognizable names in 2020 following the BLM movement. Jordan saw an opportunity to enter NASCAR with a driver who already had national attention around him. Hamlin saw the chance to build a race team his own way instead of buying into somebody else’s operation. A few months later, 23XI Racing was born.

“It certainly changed my perspective. Obviously, when you see it as a driver, you do see it through one lens, right?” He added, “You don’t, as the driver, you’re kind of sheltered from seeing some of that stuff.”

“Now I know why NASCAR’s doing that,” Hamlin said. “Now I know why the teams are pushing for this, even though as a driver, I might want something different.”

How Denny Hamlin Manages Two Sides of NASCAR at Once

This is where Hamlin’s situation gets weird, even by NASCAR standards. Owners are retired drivers. Active drivers don’t normally own Cup teams. Hamlin, however, does both at the same time, and not casually either. He’s actively participating in 23XI’s day-to-day operations while still driving full-time for Joe Gibbs Racing.

Jordan may be the majority owner financially, but Hamlin built most of the racing side. He hired Wallace. He later pulled Tyler Reddick away from Richard Childress Racing and brought in Riley Herbst when 23XI expanded to three full-time cars.

He also helped build the team’s giant “Airspeed” headquarters in Huntersville. The building is basically a tech campus with a central “Speed Center” where engineers monitor live data from all three cars during race weekends.

23X also reportedly pays JGR around $8 million per year for technical support, making matters complicated. That includes Toyota Racing Development engines, chassis setups, simulation tools, and engineering help.

On Fridays and Saturdays, Hamlin starts inside the No. 11 JGR hauler, doing driver meetings and setup reviews with his crew chief. After that, he walks across the garage to the 23XI side and sits in competition meetings with Wallace, Reddick, and Herbst’s teams. But there are hard boundaries.

Hamlin cannot physically carry JGR setup sheets or sensitive engineering files into the 23XI garage. NASCAR monitors those technical alliances because illegal data sharing can result in huge fines and point penalties. Once Sunday’s race starts, the separation becomes absolute. Hamlin is fully a Joe Gibbs Racing driver at that point. His radio is locked to the No. 11 team only. He cannot listen to Wallace or Reddick during the race, even though he owns their cars.

The sponsor side is another maze entirely. 23XI has Monster Energy sponsorship deals. Joe Gibbs Racing has competing partner agreements. That means Hamlin can’t casually wear Monster gear at the track while representing JGR because of sponsor exclusivity clauses.