Denny Hamlin breaks down 23 XI Racing’s “must-win” targets amid playoff pressure

Denny Hamlin went over 23Xl Racing's playoff targets on the latest episode of Actions Detrimental. According to the team owner, the next two rounds can swing either way, and a consistent points tally is needed to survive without a win.

Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick had a tough outing at the recently concluded Mobil 1 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The duo finished outside the top-20. Reddick was the better driver of the two, coming in at P21 with a top-10 finish in Stage 1.

Nonetheless, their lacklustre points haul placed them in the bottom two playoff spots. Reddick is 23 points below the cutline, while Wallace is 27 points adrift.

Reflecting on the same, Hamlin shared whether a must-win situation is on the horizon.

"Must win is you're below 30 points out, going into the last race, like that's must win. With two races to go, just too much other stuff can happen. You can go out there and you can have yourself a 50-point day at Kansas, and next thing you know, I bet you're gonna be -5," he said via X/DirtyMoMedia. [0:44 onwards] "They need a 50 point day and then they need to follow that up at the next track with a 35 point day and I think they have a chance," he added.

In line with Denny Hamlin's comments, Bubba Wallace runs the risk of falling below the 30-point mark. If such a situation were to unfold at Kansas Speedway, the No.23 driver will have to win at Charlotte Roval to keep his playoff hopes alive.

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"They were below mediocre": Denny Hamlin on Bubba Wallace's struggles at New Hampshire

On the same episode of Actions Detrimental, Denny Hamlin addressed Bubba Wallace's poor outing at New Hampshire. He revealed his observations from Wallace's In-car footage and concluded that the latter was dealing with a lot of handling issues.

"I kind of looked at Bubba's In-car when I rewatched the race. You know, he had his hands full. He was peddling his car off the corner, all race long, and his car looked like how mine felt. Now I wasn't quite as active with my hands as what Bubba was, but if we were mediocre, they were below mediocre," he said via aforementioned source. [0:14 onwards]

Denny Hamlin himself had a rather poor outing in the 301-lap event. He landed on a P12 finish after a ninth place start. His only saving grace was a top-10 result in Stage 2, but much of it was overlooked after his shunt with Ty Gibbs.

The two went against each other for quite some time, before Hamlin made a mistake over Turn 1 and spun out Gibbs. The incident has garnered widespread media attention over a brewing intra-team rivalry.

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Edited by Vignesh Kanna