Denny Hamlin explains how important Chicago is to 23XI as ‘partner city’

Denny Hamlin recognizes Chicago is an important city to his 23XI Racing team. It’s where his partner in this venture Michael Jordan became an icon, but that’s not the only reason he’s a fan of the Windy City.

During the latest episode of his Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin elaborated on some of the sponsors for his race team that are anchored in Chicago. For that reason, among others, the Joe Gibbs Racing wheelman is hoping NASCAR’s partnership with the area remains for the foreseeable future.

“It’s a very important partner city,” Hamlin said, regarding Chicago and 23XI. There’s three main (sponsors). There were three main ones this weekend that this was a big deal for them. McDonald’s, obviously — their headquarters is there. You have the Jordan Brand, for obvious reasons. And then it was an important one for Robinhood, as well. They had a bunch of people out.

“So, it matters to us. In a world where, you know, if we don’t sell sponsorship, we don’t have a business — it’s important, no doubt.”

Of course, NASCAR won’t make the decision to remain in Chicago due to 23XI’s ties, but it would be a nice deal for Hamlin’s team. There’s a bevy of other cities vying to host a street race, so NASCAR could opt to move in 2026 and beyond.

Time will tell what happens, but a decision should be made in the near future. Whether it’s Chicago or a different city, NASCAR will likely choose to keep the street race tradition going, as it’s been a net positive for the sport.

More on Denny Hamlin, NASCAR Chicago Street Race

Meanwhile, the Chesterfield, Virginia native came home P4 at the end of the Chicago Street Race. A late strategy call to pit with a myriad of other Toyotas led to the No. 11 notching a top five at a track where Denny Hamlin’s not usually considered much of a factor.

While he didn’t have anything for eventual winner Shane van Gisbergen, Hamlin was more than satisfied with his result. He broke down what went into the strategy his team deployed during the latest episode of his Actions Detrimental podcast.

“We were the leader of the group that thought they could make it after the Josh Berry wreck,” Hamlin stated, regarding his strategy late in the race in Chicago. “There was a group that pitted when they saw (Berry) sitting there. There were five cars that pitted. (Crew chief Chris Gayle) was like, ‘With a caution, we’re fine, but save gas as if that caution’s not coming. Save us a lap and a half or so of gas.’

“My job at that point was, ‘All right, get ahead of all the people that just pitted,’ which I did. I passed those five cars, with the exception of [Tyler] Reddick. … We got the track-position by doing that. But, you know, we pitted the same amount of times as SVG. We pit twice during the course of that race. So, we didn’t do anything special, strategy-wise.

“We just pitted once we got right at our field-window, just like everybody else did. We just really did a good job of getting spots, passing in the long run, passing on the short restarts. Like, it was one of our better road course races.”

Hamlin certainly is never the favorite when it comes to road courses, or street courses for that matter, but it was an impressive showing from the Joe Gibbs Racing wheelman. Now, he’ll have another shot at the track type, as the Cup Series is heading to Sonoma this coming weekend.