Denny Hamlin talks about Michael Jordan, podcasting, and his role as the villain of NASCAR

Lane Casadonte:
"Has anything about Michael's commitment to the team in the sport — has any part of that surprised you at all?"

Denny Hamlin:
"I mean, I knew he was a big fan of the sport for a long time. You know, I linked up with as a Jordan-brand athlete, probably back in 2009, or 10. So, you know, 13, 14 years I've been with him and a partnership in some way. And he was always quizzing me on questions about the race, even when he was not a team owner. So I knew that he had fandom towards the sport. But you know, last year showing up to like seven or eight of the playoff races was, I mean, that's big for our team to know the drivers know who they're driving for is right there on pit lane supporting them. That goes a long way."

Lane Casadonte:
"In the Netflix thing you said when you approached him about forming a team. You said, 'I just took my shot.' When he said, 'Yes.' I mean, did your jaw hit the floor?"

Denny Hamlin:
"It did actually. I remember exactly where I was. I was golfing, and I was on the ninth hole on my second shot. And I ended up leaving the ball in the fairway because I got so scatterbrained I just drove up to the green, and I did not my friends were like, Hey, you didn't hit your ball? And I'm like, Yeah, but I got a text back saying, you know, 'If you want a partner, let me know.'"

Lane Casadonte:
"That had a little Bobby The Brain Heenan to it. Was that planned? Did you have that in the back of your head? Was that completely spontaneous?"

Denny Hamlin:
"No, it was spontaneous for sure in that moment. Simply because of the the crowd obviously, I was just feeding off of the crowd. My rivalry with the fans is been actually a pretty friendly one. The ones that I've, you know, the fans I interact with on this side of the fence. So they have pit passes garage patch, it's been very, very respectful. But when they're on the other side of the fence talking mess. I'm on the other side of the fence talking mess as well.

Lane Casadonte:
The podcast gives you a certain stature in the garage, how does that change the way you interact with the higher ups at NASCAR and maybe with the way you interact with officials at the track?

Denny Hamlin:
"I had to sit down with, you know, upper management of NASCAR. And I said, 'Listen, this is my podcast. And there's 80% of the time, I'm going to be pretty positive about what's going on. But my job is to be, you know, subjective and obviously, objective about what I see. And I and I believe that the fans tune in because they know they're going to get an honest opinion. And you're going to have to deal with the 20% that's negative.' And we both came out of that conversation and they conceded to the fact that the sport is better with your podcast. Tens of thousands of people that listen to that every single week, we were talking to the core fan that is that is tuning into the races each and every week."

Lane Casadonte:
"A lot of your contemporaries have gotten out of the car. Why are you still doing this?"

Denny Hamlin:
Man, because I'm so competitive at it. I mean, I think that you know, the moment I feel like I can't win at every track, I'll probably get out whenever that might be. But I just feel like I'm still on top of things. I can still run fast lap times and practice qualifying in the race. Like I just feel as though I keep getting better."

Lane Casadonte:
"If you already had a championship do you think you'd still be driving?"

Denny Hamlin:
"I think I definitely would be simply because you know, my personal goals is to get to 60 wins. If I can get to 61 then I could be head of Harvick that puts you in the top 10 of all time. And I just think that that's a that's a more that's a goal that we can talk about championships but there's been champions with 12 wins total, right? And so I just would rather get in the upper echelon of race winners and in NASCAR and I feel like that that stat will be more than than the this one in this column."