Ahead of the Daytona 500, Why Denny Hamlin Wants Bubba Wallace to Be Selfish

There aren’t many superspeedway drivers in NASCAR today who are better than Denny Hamlin. So it’s only obvious that Hamlin’s driver at 23XI Racing, Bubba Wallace, is looking up to the 3x Daytona 500 winner to fill in the gaps in his craft to get better at superspeedway racing.

In a recent interview, Wallace opened up on the fine balance between being selfish and being a team player on a racetrack such as Daytona. “When I got over there, you didn’t really see much teamwork amongst the Toyotas. So I’m like, ‘Hey, I feel like the other manufacturers are kicking our tail by working together a little bit better.’ Then I felt like we started to overdo it,” he described.

“We were trying to form a pack around 25th and that’s like, ‘What are we doing?'”

Wallace continued, “So Denny and I had a short conversation, going through all of our meetings and stuff and I was like, ‘Hey, your Netflix comments stood out and he said, it’s hard to win these things when you’re not being selfish. I’ve won three of them by being selfish.’ And you’re like, ‘He’s right.'”

The #23 driver revealed that within Toyota, they’re “adjusting” so that other manufacturers don’t win the 500 this Sunday. And when it comes to him and Hamlin, he is aware of the one thing he can learn from his boss to become a better racecar driver on plate tracks.

“I think for me, Denny and I make great choices or great moves to get to the front. Denny makes all the right ones to stay at the front. That’s where I lack. I’m one move behind and I get shoved to the back and I have to play catch up,” Wallace claimed.

“I think that’s what’s holding us back, if we can put that together, I think we’ll be good.”

What is Denny Hamlin expecting from Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick in 2024?

Today, 23XI Racing is one of the fastest-growing organizations in NASCAR. But in the coming season, Denny Hamlin wants his organization to take the next step. It’s no secret that Hamlin wants 23XI to be a championship contender as soon as possible but Hamlin is also realistic. And that reflects in his yearly goals for Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick as well.

“Our expectation is to continue to get better. That’s a very vague statement,” Hamlin said recently on his podcast. “Just two cars in the playoffs, that’s way too modest, for what we have going on there.

“So my goal would be to have both cars, at least both cars in the Final 8.”

Hamlin claimed that his goal for 2024 would be in line with the bigger goal of having one of the cars, either Bubba Wallace or Tyler Reddick in the final 4 by 2025.

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• Bubba Wallace
• Denny Hamlin