“Those two could really do something special this year”: Bubba Wallace’s boss makes opinion clear about 23XI’s “game-changer” asset

Denny Hamlin, co-owner of the 23XI Racing team alongside basketball legend Michael Jordan, recently shared his thoughts on what Bubba Wallace could achieve in the 2025 Cup Series season with his new crew chief Charles Denike. Wallace's longtime crew chief Bootie Barker stepped down from his role ahead of the 2025 season, making way for Denike.

Bubba Wallace kicked off his 2025 campaign with a top-five result in the season-opening exhibition race at the Bowman Gray Stadium, starting on the seventh row alongside Richard Childress Racing star Kyle Busch. This is already a positive start to the new partnership between Wallace and Denike. Hamlin described Denike as a 'game-changer' for the No. 23 Leidos Toyota team.

"At 23XI, we're most excited about Charles Denike..." Hamlin said on this year's first episode of Actions Detrimental. "We believe we found a rock star in Charles, I'm glad we found him, Dave Rogers did a great job recruiting him from the truck series he was with the #19 Truck. And so, I think he's going to be a game-changer for 23XI and Bubba Wallace. I think that those two could really do something special this year." (27:52 - 28:55)

The JGR driver explained how jumping from leading a Truck team to a Cup Team is a big leap for any crew chief. But despite that, he has only gotten positive feedback about Denike from everyone on the team.

"He's coming in fresh, he was with a Chevy truck team, going to now a Toyota Cup team so you know, literally it couldn't be a bigger transition for him but I mean from what I've seen and what I've heard, he's doing a fantastic job," Hamlin added (29:01 onwards).

Wallace himself is very excited to build a strong relationship with his new crew chief and he started working towards it from the first moment they met.

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Bubba Wallace makes his 2025 goals known to his new crew chief

Despite not making the playoffs in 2024, Bubba Wallace had a decent run last season, securing seven top-five and 16 top-10 finishes in his campaign, more than he has ever achieved in NASCAR's premier series. The Alabama-born driver made it clear that he wants more success in 2025 but without compromising on having as much fun as possible racing.

In a recent appearance on NASCAR Live, Wallace opened up about his first meeting with Charles Denike and spoke highly of him.

"I got to meet Charles last year for the first time… He’s like super smart, he’s come from a military background. So he’s just very punctual, very set," Wallace shared on the NASCAR Live podcast (5:55 onwards).

He also shared how he made his 2025 goals very clear to his new crew chief.

"I wanna win races, but also I just wanna have fun. The first encounter I had, I probably reiterated to him 23 times about how much fun I wanted to have," the 23XI driver joked.

After their first successful outing together at Bowman Gray, Bubba Wallace spoke about how the two are compatible with each other as they don't shy away from speaking about what needs to be done better.

"He’s not afraid of telling you like, I need to do this. I’m not afraid to tell him the same thing…" Wallace said in his post-race interview (3:18 onwards).

It'll be interesting to see how they go about their business in the Daytona 500, where Wallace finished in fifth last season.