Denny Hamlin delivered a “painful” reality check to 23XI Racing following their brake issues during the recent NASCAR Cup Series race at Pocono Raceway. Hamlin, a Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) driver and seven-time winner at Pocono, expressed surprise and confusion over how all three 23XI Racing cars suffered brake problems during the event, while none of the JGR cars experienced similar issues. He discussed this on his Actions Detrimental podcast, stating, “I don’t know what’s going on over there but they’ve had… you know, typically when JGR doesn’t have brake issues, 23XI does and I don’t know why. I wish I could give you more insight on it. Obviously all three had brake issues and we got to figure that out. They had things going really well but man, it’s painful right now”.

23XI Racing, which has a technical alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing since 2021, receives chassis and other services from JGR, while Toyota Racing Development (TRD) handles engine building for the Huntersville-based team. TRD also serves JGR, which made the brake problems for all three 23XI cars even more puzzling to Hamlin.

In the race, all three 23XI Racing drivers finished 32nd or worse. Bubba Wallace and Riley Herbst both had DNFs (Did Not Finish), while Tyler Reddick was the only 23XI driver to complete all 160 laps, finishing in 32nd place—his lowest finish in a points-paying race this season. In contrast, Denny Hamlin finished second behind his teammate and race winner Chase Briscoe. Other JGR drivers Christopher Bell and Ty Gibbs finished 17th and 14th, respectively. As of now, all JGR drivers except Gibbs have qualified for the playoffs, whereas none of the 23XI Racing drivers have qualified yet.

Looking ahead, the next race for the drivers is the Quaker State 400 at Echopark Speedway (formerly Atlanta Motor Speedway), scheduled for Saturday, June 28. The race will be televised on TNT Sports starting at 7 pm ET, with live radio coverage on PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Additionally, NASCAR is hosting its first-ever In-Season Tournament starting at the Quaker State 400. Denny Hamlin was crowned the No. 1 seed for this tournament, thanks to his win at Michigan and his runner-up finish at Pocono. The seeding is based on the drivers’ finishes over the three races leading up to the event. Chase Briscoe, who won at Pocono and tied with Hamlin for the best finish ahead of Echopark, lost the tiebreaker because Hamlin’s second-best finish (P2 at Pocono) was better than Briscoe’s second-best finish (P7 at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City). Hamlin missed that Mexico City race due to the birth of his son.

The tournament winner will receive a $1 million cash prize. All five races in the tournament will be broadcast by TNT Sports, culminating with the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 27.