Denny kept receipts.
It’s been a busy offseason for Denny Hamlin. The driver of the #11 car for Joe Gibbs Racing came up short in his bid for his first NASCAR Cup Series championship thanks to a heartbreaking finish at Phoenix in the final race of 2025. But it’s safe to say he scored a much bigger win last week when NASCAR agreed to settle the antitrust lawsuit filed by 23XI Racing, the team owned by Denny and NBA legend Michael Jordan, and Front Row Motorsports.
The lawsuit was filed back in 2024 and had rocked the NASCAR world for over a year before trial started earlier this month. The case accused NASCAR of being a monopoly and using unfair (and unlawful) practices to protect their monopoly at the expense of the teams it relies on to put on their show, and exposed fractures in the sport as some in the garage chose to take sides in the litigation.
One major personality who stood by NASCAR throughout the lawsuit was Larry McReynolds, the former crew chief for Dale Earnhardt and longtime broadcaster for NASCAR on Fox. And it’s not really surprising that McReynolds chose to side with NASCAR over the race teams: He’s been in the sport a long time, has made plenty of friends along the way, and even appears on NASCAR’s SiriusXM radio station.
And look, Larry Mac is a great advocate for the sport. But there’s a fine line between being an advocate and a paid shill, and a lot of people thought McReynolds crossed that line with his comments on the lawsuit back in November 2024:
“We’ve got an organization that’s been here not even four years that all of a sudden is saying, ‘We gotta change the way NASCAR’s run.’
I’m all about change. Change is what makes you better. But you know what? When I see Richard Childress, Jack Roush, Rick Hendrick, and Joe Gibbs that’s been here longer than some of these guys have been pooping yellow… and they signed off and said, ‘This is good… we’re OK.’
There are things we don’t like about it but we’re going to do what’s best for the sport and best for our business. And they signed off on it and these people that have been either not competitive or only been here for four and a half years have been saying the way we’ve done business for 76 and a half years is wrong.”
Larry Mac also criticized Jordan for a statement he released calling the NASCAR model “unfair.”
“It’s a hideous statement in my book. He used the word unfair… What do you mean unfair? Could you clarify a little bit on unfair?
Things that NASCAR has done over the last decade is about as fair as fair could be to all parties involved.”
And he scoffed at teams calling themselves “victims” in their complaint, while defending NASCAR CEO Jim France and his family that founded the sport:
“That France family built this from scratch. And a lot of us has made a lot of good livings doing it in this sport…
Victims? Give me a break.”
At one point McReynolds even said that the race teams were going to regret filing the lawsuit, but fast forward to last week’s settlement and it turns out they got pretty much everything they were asking for: Permanent charters, damages, a portion of new revenue, and an increased say in the governance of the sport. (You can read more about what they got out of the lawsuit here).
It’s safe to say that the lawsuit was a success for the teams and a black eye for NASCAR, one that the France family and NASCAR execs probably wish they had settled a long time ago.
So is Larry Mac going to walk back his comments or apologize for what he said about 23XI Racing? Well apparently that’s the question on Denny Hamlin’s mind this morning.
After McReynolds tweeted about his upcoming appearance on SiriusXM today, Hamlin fired back and asked whether he would be issuing an apology for his comments on the lawsuit:
And in case Larry Mac was wondering what he said that rubbed Denny the wrong way, well, he kept receipts:
I believe it was “how dare them for trying to come in and change the sport. 23XI hasn’t been around long enough and FRM wasn’t good enough”. Also how about “ I dont know what their problem is, 13 other teams signed it”. Just to name a few examples.
— Denny Hamlin (@dennyhamlin) December 16, 2025
Denny’s clearly taking a well-earned victory lap after many questioned the wisdom of filing a lawsuit against NASCAR. And Larry Mac seems to be the first one in his windshield.
