Yahoo Autos Denny Hamlin Was Sued as a Kid After Being Hit by a Car. 32 Years Later He's Back in the Courtroom.
Just hours away from the NASCAR offseason, the pressure continues to build for Denny Hamlin. On Friday, Judge Frank D. Whitney denied an injunction brought by Hamlin's 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports to allow them to compete under a chartered or open team without losing the rights to continue in their lawsuit against NASCAR, the sanctioning body.
Hamlin, one of the most recent four drivers eliminated from championship contention, is still chasing the big trophy as a team owner instead of a driver. 23XI's Tyler Reddick locked his place in the playoffs with a win at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
The driver is pulled in three distinct directions as he continues in his legal battle, races for a final win with a Fed Ex livery, and hopes to bring home the first championship to his race team in their fourth season.
Ahead of Saturday's qualifying, press at Phoneix International Raceway were granted a 15-minute press conference with Hamlin. When asked about his anxiety around the lawsuit and how it compared to racing in NASCAR by NBC Sports' Dustin Long, Hamlin told the story of the first time he was in a courtroom, when he was 11, being sued.
"I hadn’t been in a courtroom since I was maybe 11," Hamlin said. "I was riding my bike as a kid, and a car hit me; they ended up suing me."
When the press core laughed, Hamlin shrugged, saying, "I know, they lost."
Hamlin hopes to move his court record from 1-0 to 2-0 this offseason as he fights to earn teams a more significant piece of revenue and decision-making.
Hamlin knew a decision was coming after the first court date on Monday; of course, it came on Friday during NACAR's State of the Sport address.
"Plaintiffs have alleged that they will face a risk of irreparable harm; they have not sufficiently alleged present, immediate, urgent irreparable harm, but rather only speculative, possible harm," Judge Whitney wrote.
"That is, although Plaintiffs allege they are on the brink of irreparable harm, the 2025 racing season is months away — the stock cars remain in the garage."
While the teams are disappointed that the injunction was not immediately met, Hamlin is excited to be heard.
"We were obviously pleased with the ruling that the judge sees merit in the case; he’s going to move forward to expedite the discovery side of it," Hamlin said. "Which is the reverse that he had before—obviously judging on it without prejudice, giving us an opportunity to refile when the situation changes because he knows that things will change over the next few months. He understands the situation is fluid, and we could see some pretty bad harm coming up."
The 43-year-old driver missed the Championship Four after being one of the dominating factors at the start of the season. These first started sliding away from Hamlin's attempt at a championship when his Bristol win was rescinded when Toyota admitted to accidentally breaking down a race-winning engine prematurely and rebuilding it before NASCAR had the chance to inspect it.
In August, NASCAR came down with the punishment, losing his fourth win and the playoff points that came with it. Hamlin fell from third in the standings with two races left in the regular season to sixth. Hamlin lost all semblance of a buffer entering the playoffs.
Weeks before the start of the playoffs, Hamlin announced he wasn't signing the charter agreement, and the lawsuit followed.
Hamlin narrowly made it through from the Round of 16 to the Round of 12, to the Round of 8. Hamlin was leading at Homestead-Miami with two laps to go when Ryan Blaney passed him on the penultimate lap before his 23XI driver Reddick took the win from them both. The next week, Blaney had his revenge, and Hamlin didn't. While his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Christopher Bell was fighting to make the final spot, embattled in a points battle with Hendrick's William Byron, Bell initially made the Championship Four, passing fellow Toyota driver Bubba Wallace on the final lap.
The problem was Bell hit the wall and kept accelerating. NASCAR considered the move a "wall ride," which was made illegal after Ross Chastain made the bold move in the final corners at Martinsville two years prior when he passed two cars and punched his ticket to the Championship Four. Bell is convinced that he was only put in that position because of race manipulation by the Cheverlots, who were protecting Byron's position further up the field.
Hamlin agrees that Bell was wronged but pragmatically realizes that at the end of the day, drivers will do whatever they have to to keep their manufacturers, often their biggest sponsors, happy.
"I do agree with him," Hamlin said. "It’s hard to put, truthfully, a whole lot of fault on those who did it. They’re doing what they’re told or typically not told; they just know the protocol and what it goes by. It’s really tough. Certainly, the No.24 was in a bad spot and was going to lose many spots until they let up. It is what it is, and there were penalties; whether that deters stuff going forward is still TBD."
While the repercussions of OEM's involvement in team orders is unknown, so is 23XI's future in the sport.
"I think it’s all TBD," Hamlin said on the team entering The Clash at Bowman Gray and the Daytona 500 to start the 2025 season. "There are certain agreements that we’re going to have to navigate. I hope so."
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