Denny Hamlin reveals he was talking trash to Michael Jordan before Kansas: ‘Wants to beat me as much as anyone’

Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan got into some trash-talking ahead of the NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas on Sunday. On the Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin detailed what he said to Jordan, who co-owns 23XI Racing with him.

“I told him if something weird doesn’t happen, it’s a guaranteed win,” Denny Hamlin said when talking to Michael Jordan before the race. “Kansas is a guaranteed win as long as nothing weird happens.”

And when Hamlin was asked what Jordan’s response was, he said, “Well, he says, ‘I believe you’ for one.” Hamlin then revealed what Jordan said to him when he had Ryan Blaney, Bubba Wallace, and Riley Herbst over to watch the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race and the NBA playoffs on Saturday night.

“Michael said, ‘Yeah, I’m worried about the 11 (Hamlin). Denny said he’s going to win, and I’m worried about the 11,'” Hamlin said. “I was like, ‘I thought the 45 (Tyler Reddick) was quite a bit better than us in practice, but we’re good at making overnight adjustments.’ So he probably was very happy because I was telling him all weekend that we were going to win. He’s very happy because of how much s**t I talked to him, actually. I know it’s hard to believe, but I talk a lot of trash to him. He probably wants to beat me as much as anyone.”

Michael Jordan celebrates beating Denny Hamlin

Hamlin also said that Jordan cheers for him when the 23XI cars are not going to win, but when it’s head-to-head, Jordan wants to see the 23XI drivers beat Hamlin, which is what happened on Sunday when Reddick won his fifth race of the season.

Overall, it was a strong day for 23XI as all four drivers finished in the top 15. Wallace finished fifth, Herbst finished 14th, and Corey Heim came in at 15th. Hamlin finished fourth but dominated nearly the entire race, leading 131 of the 274 laps.

After the race, Jordan talked about how he wanted to beat his 23XI partner. “Look, I’m racing against Denny. I really wanted to beat him because I know we’re going to talk a lot of trash a little bit later,” Jordan said. “It was a good race. When we started to run out of fuel, I didn’t know what was happening. 23XI, all the guys drove well today.”