Denny Hamlin explains what goes into building 23XI Racing pit crews

Since the advent of their team, Denny Hamlin‘s 23XI Racing has dealt with uneven performance from their pit crews.

Of course, Hamlin himself hasn’t had to deal with the inconsistency, as his crew is provided by Joe Gibbs Racing, but Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick have been wishing for some more help. Looking towards the future for some better days, Hamlin explained what goes in to putting together a pit crew for both the No. 23 and No. 45.

“You can’t just pick crew guys right off the couch,” explained the NASCAR veteran, via his Actions Detrimental podcast. “Because if they were good, then they’d have a job somewhere. The process then of fixing if someone’s got a health issue, and just isn’t 100% as a pit crew guy, or if they need to hone their skills and get more reps, like that is a process. It’s just weighing like, ‘What is this person’s ceiling?’ versus where they’re at now. When you’re building a pit crew department, and this is the first year that 23XI has had their own pit crews, we understand it’s a process. … Do we expand? Do we hire more personnel? Do we hire more than to have three pit crews, and then we’ll outsource one to another team, to let us continue to build our roster, and hone our stuff.

“We figured, at Gibbs, that we would probably get the fifth and sixth best team. That just made sense for Gibbs, but it didn’t make sense for us, because we feel like we have race-winning cars. But it is a process. It takes time.”

Perhaps hiring a third pit crew will be what ultimately helps 23XI Racing out of their rut, but Hamlin made sure to point out it isn’t simply that cut and dry.

“Our alliance with JGR, we use their facilities basically. But we’ve hired our own coach, we’ve got really ten guys. We don’t have any reserves,” added Hamlin. “What we did, is part of our alliance, we have access to reserves on JGR’s roster. … Some of them were already on 23XI’s cars, but they were JGR’s employees. I would say most of them came from other teams. Other pit crew member’s contracts are up. … Then we take and we have all the information to try these guys out, or look at their history and say is this somebody we would want to hire or not.

“So it’s a huge expense for 23XI, then to hire another pit crew that is not for one of our cars. But it’s like, is the investment worth it. It seems like it needs to be at this point.”

If it can help Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick achieve the finishes they deserve, 23XI Racing will do it. Expect a big chance coming to Denny Hamlin’s race team in the near future, as they look to move towards a more successful future.