23XI Racing co-owner hits out at 'LAUGHABLE' NASCAR lawsuit claims

23XI Racing co-owner Denny Hamlin has criticised claims made in a new NASCAR lawsuit against his team.

23XI and Front Row Motorsports have been in dispute with NASCAR over an antitrust lawsuit the teams filed last year, and the organization retaliated last week by filing a countersuit.

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Part of the lawsuit claims that Michael Jordan's business partner Curtis Polk arranged a boycott of a qualifying race as an illegal negotiating tactic as head of the Teams Negotiating Committee working on a new charter agreement.

Hamlin, who finished second in Phoenix on the weekend in a dramatic race, hit back at the claims on his podcast on Sunday, calling them 'laughable' – especially the accusation from NASCAR's lead attorney last week that Polk doesn't 'really understand the sport'.

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“It came as a surprise to me,” Hamlin said on the podcast. “Certainly, I was very surprised to hear some of the accusation of what was said. All I can really tell you is that I have been in business with Curtis now for five years. The guy is one of the most respected businessmen in all of sports.”

He continued: “He’s been in the business in multiple sports and he helped us build this race team into a championship caliber team by year five, which is what our goal was. And we saw this when the injunction, right, you heard our side. You heard their side.

"But when we got into a court room, the judge listened to facts and made judgement based off the facts that he heard and that’s what we’re looking forward to on December 1 when this trial will happen.”

The 44-year-old driver added: “I found many of those things quite laughable. My favorite was saying Curtis doesn’t know NASCAR business. I don’t even know how to provide an analogy but that’s like saying a chef doesn’t know how to cook. Like, this is what he does. He’s built Michael Jordan’s empire for the past 30 years.

"The guy knows the business. He’s been doing it for five years now. Curtis has been fantastic for our team and been a pioneer, I believe, and a trailblazer for new ideas that our team uses every time we hit the race track and how we do business, and certain things, and personally, I’m proud to be in business with him.”

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