“Situation Might Change Around the Race Team” – Denny Hamlin Leaves the Door Open for Early Tyler Reddick Entry While Emphasizing 23XI’s Commitment Toward Kurt Busch

23XI Racing driver Kurt Busch has been sidelined since his crash at Pocono Raceway back in July. Since then, there has been a series of speculation regarding the future of the veteran NASCAR Cup Series driver. The team gave the #45 car to Bubba Wallace before the 2022 playoffs to compete for the owner’s championship.

In a recent interview with Bob Pockrass, the co-owner of 23XI Racing Denny Hamlin talked about not rushing the 23XI driver to make a decision about next year.

Instead, the #11 driver of Joe Gibbs Racing said, “We never wanted to push Kurt to any sort of decision whatsoever, which is why we’ve been patient with him even this year and obviously the opportunity always comes, is open for him to come back anytime he wants.”

“We have Kurt on a contract this year, next year and an option for third year. So I think that it’s important for us to make sure that Kurt has the opportunity to come back whenever he wants, so it never will be.”

“Situation might change around the race team shouldn’t affect our commitment to Kurt, whatsoever. So I just wanna make sure he always has an opportunity. We don’t fill a spot that ultimately he is likely to come back to.”

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This resulted in an expectation from the NASCAR community in regard to the likely future of Kurt Busch’s future in 23XI. Aside from this, the recent signing of Kyle Busch to Richard Childress Racing, which created a chain reaction in NASCAR and adding Tyler Reddick and his contract saga in the mix surely left a lot of heads wondering.

A “contingency plan” in place for 23XI Racing

Hamlin isn’t under any rush to talk about the plans of Reddick joining 23XI as early as 2023. The Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin racing team is still going with the plan of Reddick joining 23XI in 2024. Hamlin isn’t under any rush to bring Busch back into his #45 car; Gibbs is in #23 of Wallace for the time being.

Although Hamlin recently said, “We still feel like Kurt is going to run next year, if he doesn’t, we’ve already got contingency plans for the 45 car,” he said. “If (Reddick) was pushed to the side, I think we would take him. But I don’t know that we need to get into pushing to get him early.”

“Tyler has really said, and I believe it, that he wants to live out his contract at RCR. Mostly he wanted to do it for his team and his guys. With him being taken out of the (No.) 8 car, I don’t know if that changes, but I know Tyler wanted to end what he started there.”

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There is always a chance of ‘something might happen’. With all this speculation around the future of the present and soon to be 23XI drivers, it does seem like the owners of the 23XI Racing team have a well thought through plan.