“It’s a big moment”: Denny Hamlin humbled by delivering $3.5B worth Michael Jordan major moment in Homestead

Denny Hamlin was pleased with Tyler Reddick's victory at Homestead-Miami, which marked the third win for the 23XI Racing car and the first playoff win in front of co-owner Michael Jordan, the NBA legend who is worth $3.5 billion according to Forbes.

Tyler Reddick, who won the race in Miami, is now part of the Championship 4 race in Phoenix. He is the sole winner for the team this season, while teammate Bubba Wallace, despite strong performances, has yet to secure a victory.

Denny Hamlin, who finished third in the race, was pleased with his team's competitive performance, especially considering that it came in front of co-owner Michael Jordan, who was present at the event. Speaking on the Actions Detrimental podcast, Jared Allen asked Hamlin:

"Tyler's got to feel real good pulling that off in front of MJ."

The #11 Toyota driver said that he felt a sense of gratification towards the NBA star after delivering that performance.

"Yeah, absolutely," Hamlin said. "You know it's certainly big. He comes a lot of these playoff races, this is in his backyard he probably drove there from where he lives. It's a big moment for our team and Tyler and everything. You know it's certainly very gratifying for myself to be able to help deliver that for Michael."

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Denny Hamlin would watch the Phoenix race as an "owner fan" if he does not make it to the Championship 4

Denny Hamlin, 43, has been chasing his first NASCAR Cup Series championship for a long time but hasn't achieved it yet. Despite coming close on several occasions, difficult circumstances have prevented him from securing the title.

While he was in contention to win at Miami last week and make it to the Championship 4, Tyler Reddick had much better control of his car as he converted his pole to a victory. Tyler Reddick is now locked in with Joey Logano at the top of the Championship 4. Denny Hamlin, meanwhile, is currently in the bubble position, sitting in sixth place.

Talking about the race result on his podcast, Hamlin stated that he was "still bummed," but had a two-ways reaction as a driver of his co-owned team won the race.

"I'm still very very bummed and dejected. Certainly it's the balance that I have, you know, I'm still locked in you know here for the next seven days to make sure that I put my best efforts forward to to go win Martinsville," Denny Hamlin said.

He further mentioned that if he did not make it to the final four, he would head to Phoenix as an "owner fan."

"If we don't make it then certainly I'll be a owner fan for the last race in Phoenix. But yeah, I mean I'm only going to be a driver for a certain amount of time longer, right? So these opportunities are really really hard to come by and yeah I'm just more disappointed," he added.

Winning at Martinsville is seemingly the best sneario for Denny Hamlin to guve himself a chance at winning his first title.