Denny Hamlin assured his 23XI co-owner Michael Jordan that victory was all but certain at Kansas earlier this year. But, as fate would have it, everything changed. The result? A mock-choke video that is since gone viral, and a rivalry that has both Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin on edge. Thankfully, after the latter’s recent win at Pocono, the driver can rest easy for a while now.

“I’ll never forget when Michael addressed 23XI in the off-season. He says, ‘What I’m interested to see is what Denny does. Because after what happened in Phoenix, you either pick yourself up and you respond, or you fold. We’ll find out.

“He’s finding out.”

Well, let’s just say the road to “finding out” hasn’t been that smooth. After Denny Hamlin’s loss at the Cup Series Championship race despite pole position and leading 208 laps, the 2026 season came with its own challenges. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver spectacularly lost at the 2026 AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway, a loss that especially hurt because of what transpired before and after the race.

“I told him it’s a win if something strange doesn’t happen,” the driver had reportedly said before the race back then.

Yet, it was Tyler Reddick who had the last laugh. After his late-race lead vanished when he scraped the wall and suffered from a low fuel situation, Hamlin took P1 for a while… until a spin by Cody Ware triggered a caution, and ultimately, overtime. The restart then turned chaotic as Reddick, Hamlin, and Christopher Bell collided, giving the lead to Kyle Larson.

Miraculously, Reddick recovered, chased Larson down the backstretch, and executed a spectacular last-lap pass in Turns 3 and 4 to steal a stunning victory. Hamlin, on the other hand, finished fourth. And if that was not enough, Jordan further added insult to injury post-race.

As per a video that is now viral, the NBA legend was seen playfully grabbing his co-owner by the neck and kissing the side of his head. Now, to spectators, that might seem like camaraderie. But to Hamlin, that was a reminder of Jordan’s off-season call-out. Reflecting on the same, Hamlin shared how he took it to heart.

“When it happened, I’m fresh off of a lot of shit going bad, right? I’m showing up at the team meeting,” the Joe Gibbs Racing driver said at Pocono. “We’re there to give our motivational speech to 23XI on the season, define what your expectations are as owners, challenge our guys to get better. I don’t know what brought it up. I can’t remember that part of it. I almost saw it as a challenge at that point, right? It’s not like you won a championship in his first year. He went through the failure, then, boom, he bounced back, right?

“I think just like everything else, if it’s booze or it’s trolls on social media, that’s fuel for me. They don’t know they’re just fueling me. If you’re rooting against me, you’re not doing it the right way. At that point when he said he was interested to see what happens, I considered that a challenge at that point.”

However, since April, Denny Hamlin hasn’t slowed down. He has four wins (just one less than Reddick) and has decreased the gap to Reddick to just 19 points. In fact, the driver’s win at Pocono marks his third straight win and 64th of his career. Arguably, one of the strongest stretches of his entire Cup career. That too, at 45 years old!

Surely, Michael Jordan is finding out plenty what it means to challenge a driver like Denny Hamlin.