Denny Hamlin might be leading the NASCAR Cup Series standings right now, but his responsibilities in the sport also include being a team co-owner at 23XI Racing.
That involves making some hugely important decisions, such as choosing which drivers to invest in and put in their cars moving forward, along with Michael Jordan, of course.
We saw 23XI do this recently, with the team confirming that reigning Truck Series champion Corey Heim would drive for them full-time in the Cup Series from 2027 onwards, replacing the outgoing Riley Herbst.
So, how does Hamlin, in his role as a co-owner at 23XI, assess up-and-coming talent, like Heim, in the O'Reilly and Truck Series?
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Denny Hamlin on assessing upcoming NASCAR talent
“You just have a self-built model in your head that this team, their cars are 100% and that’s five cars at 100%. And then the next team, I put them a little lower," Hamlin told the media at Chicagoland Speedway when quizzed on the topic.
"I’m not in the trenches and know all the facts, but I hear enough that this team has better engines and this team has better bodies and you just kind of put all of that in your head and say that is where they should be running. Then you find some outliers, well a team that’s in your mind is an 80% resource team performing at a 90% level, well why is that? Is it the drivers, is it the cars? What is it, right? You can just evaluate in that kind of way.
"There’ no exact science to it from my standpoint. A lot of the guys other than Corey Heim, I’ve been on the racetrack with them before and I can see they can drive well beyond their equipment is supposed to be going in speed. For Corey, there’s just a moment in that Iowa race where he was running for Sam Hunt, I know that car should not be running that fast.
"There are just little moments that happen like that which get your attention and if it happens more and more often, then you start to have conversations.”
O'Reilly Series vs Truck Series
If assessing talent wasn't hard enough, the fact that the O'Reilly and Truck Series cars drive completely differently also adds an added layer of complication to the process.
Hamlin, though, focuses on racecraft above all else.
“It’s really, really hard. The trucks probably drive more similarly to the NextGen car, but it’s really hard to evaluate one over the other," Hamlin continued.
"I just look at racecraft. Can someone make a move and put their car in a position that I know is a very difficult position and they come out of it ahead?
It really doesn’t matter to me what vehicle they’re driving of the person I’m watching, it makes no difference because I believe the great drivers can adapt to the car they are in.
"You learn racecraft, then you just adapt your style to get the speed out of the machine that you are in.”
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