NASCAR CUP SERIES: ANDURIL 250

June 21, 2026

Bootie Barker

Denny Hamlin

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: We're now joined by our race-winning owner, Denny Hamlin, and race-winning crew chief, Bootie Barker.

This marks 23XI's first 1-2 finish. Also Corey Heim's first Cup Series win. Can you talk about how Corey has been preparing and working through his part-time gig with you guys.

BOOTIE BARKER: I'd say, well, Corey obviously is super talented. As far as the work ethic and the things he puts in, I describe him as serious. He's a serious person. He sees this opportunity and he wants to do well.

Now, one advantage in a way we have at 23XI, with our association with Gibbs, we all have really good cars, really good people. We get to put in more work per race, let's say, than others.

Every race Corey and I go to, we put in weeks of work, weeks of refinement, talking about what we want to achieve. In some ways, while we have some disadvantages in not running every week for Corey, we also have some advantages, too, that we take advantages of with our resources that this man provides.

DENNY HAMLIN: Yeah, I mean, I know our team gave Corey a list of agendas, expectations for each race that he has left on his schedule. Winning here was not on it. Yeah, I know he put in a lot of time preparing for this event. Like Bootie said, this is a week where if you do run part-time, this is a battle over time, because I can only put so much time into this. I was busy preparing for Pocono and Michigan and Nashville and all those. You're a little bit up against the clock every week because you have to go to the racetrack every week, you have to move on to the next. They can be more strategic with their time preparing for the event.

I think this is one, and I think you saw it with Austin Hill, the more reps was better. I think no doubt about it. It was an advantage to be on the track more. It was an advantage to be in the sim more. Corey just did an amazing job.

I'm excited to go back and watch it. Sounded like him and the 45 were dueling it out on that last run. Bubba drove through the field a couple times. Reilly was up front in the top five.

Yeah, this is certainly a banner day for our team. I asked Corey before the race started, I said, This is the first week you haven't called me for advice. You didn't think I'd bring anything to the table (smiling)?

Apparently he was good.

THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up for questions.

Q. Denny, everybody knows Corey is really talented. How surprised are you that he was able to pull that off?

DENNY HAMLIN: Really surprised. I mean, truthfully really surprised. Now, if you would have asked me in the middle of the race, I wouldn't have been that surprised. I got to race around him enough to know he had plenty of speed. I knew he was on the right side of the strategy cycle.

Yeah, I mean, you still got to go out there and beat some of the best, have enough speed. I saw that margin of victory over second, third was like 10 seconds or something. Evidently him and Tyler set a really fast pace there on that last run.

But this was not expected by any means. I was very pleasantly surprised.

Q. Have you seen of the replays about Heim and Reddick?

DENNY HAMLIN: Yeah.

Q. What is 23XI's protocol or rules in that situation?

DENNY HAMLIN: Well, I think it speaks a lot to Tyler's character, right? Apparently he felt like Corey raced him very clean, got around him clean. When he tried to pass him back clean, he didn't, so he wanted to hit the reset button and try it again.

I'm very proud of that 'cause it's very easy when you're racing for the win to just say, I'll say I'm sorry later (laughter). It speaks a lot to the character of Tyler Reddick.

Q. Denny, what boxes did this event check for you as a driver and as an owner? Do you want it to return?

DENNY HAMLIN: Well, I mean, the event itself was fantastic. I'm sure NASCAR and its team has got a checklist of things they can improve on.

It seemed like to me the people I interacted with, like lots of them, it was their first race. Racing the racetrack, it felt like a normal NASCAR track to me. It was a little surprising the first time we hit the racetrack, but after that, once the race got going, it felt like any old road course that we've had.

I thought great design, lots of passing zones, challenging in so many different ways with the surface. But when we come into this event, you want it to feel like the racing is a big part of why you're here, but it's not the only reason why you're here.

I thought they did a great job with their midway, how much activation they had. That's the boxes we need to check. There's many races that makes selling on a car really difficult. This was not one of 'em.

Q. Denny, Tyler said we're going down the wrong path right now on the 45 team, not having good points days. As a driver for you, that's great, because you're eight points back of the points lead. As an owner, how do you evaluate where the 45 team is?

DENNY HAMLIN: Yeah, I mean, if I could have one wish, it would be that all of our teams be very proud of what they did today. I mean, we had four of the top five or six inside a few laps to go.

I know it's easy to just stare at your hood pins and only thing about the short-term. I guarantee you Tyler is thinking about the short-term. But he started last. He had to come from the back multiple times. Bubba Wallace came from the back multiple times. We got our other young drivers out there in the top five.

Everyone needs to be proud and look at the day as half full even though I understand the result is not what he wanted. In the grand scheme of things, it's great to see that our cars have the speed to go out there and win and all of 'em can do it.

Q. Denny, you're a connoisseur of NASCAR Twitter. It was fun today watching them react to Bubba Wallace. From your perspective, how much work have you seen Bubba put into the road course program? How gratifying is it to see his success here?

DENNY HAMLIN: Yeah, again, if I could sprinkle magic fairy dust on Bubba Wallace, it would be to be more happy on days you should be happy. You didn't get a win, but daggone, you would take second before this race started and said, All right, I'll go home.

He should be very proud of the effort that he put in. I got to go to 23XI this week, watch him put in some time on the sim. I definitely think this is one that you got to hold your head up high.

Yeah, the team certainly could have executed better and not had a wheel fall off. But overcoming that, that's what I want to see. Nobody's race goes exactly as planned. It's how you respond to it that's going to dictate your result.

Not giving up, battling, coming home with a second-place finish, giving us our first 1-2 finish as a team, that's something that we're very, very proud of. Certainly he should be proud of himself and the strides he's taken on road courses.

Q. Bootie, you've been working with Corey. His character, the kind of person he is off the track. What is it that makes him different from other drivers you've worked with?

BOOTIE BARKER: I still say I call it his seriousness and his focus. He and I, I guess we feed off each other, too. Don't get me wrong, we get along well. But as far as what we talk about, what we focus on and what we do and what we enjoy doing is this, is being able to compete.

In my estimation, I got to be careful how I verbiage this, we could have I feel won Nashville. I think in some other breaks like Texas we had an opportunity. I think going into Chicago, I mean, a lot of your support has to be there, but we could win there, too.

That's not arrogance. That's just saying all of our work, his talent, his desire, I mean, his ability to adapt to these cars and go, his speed, I feel we can do it.

Even though today was a tall order to accomplish, in some ways it doesn't surprise me.

Q. Denny, this may sound weird, but how weird is it for you to be fighting for the championship on this side against somebody that you own, having those dual roles? You could have been fighting with another team, another driver from somewhere else. Maybe that's easier. What is this like balancing going for the championship but also owning the car of the car you're racing for the championship?

DENNY HAMLIN: I mean, it's unique. Nothing has changed. I mean, me and Tyler's dialogue on a weekly basis is as high as it's ever been. I believe in him. I want him to finish second.

I mean, I think he's got years and years and years and years and years to win lots of races and a championship. My clock, the hourglass is getting low.

But I will do everything I possibly can to give them all the tools they need to go out there and win. I will never hold back any information from them or anything that they ask me because that's part of my responsibility.

It's part of the advantage that we have. No other owner is on that racetrack understanding what these drivers are talking about, then can dictate how we move our resources around to fix what they think and what I think we need to work on.

I think that is really a great strategic advantage for us. It's showing in race wins right now.

Q. Bootie, you were with Corey at the last Cup street race we had. He DNQ'd. What did that do to him psychologically? It did something to his drive to get better at these types of tracks.

BOOTIE BARKER: I'll tell you what I told him after this. I have so much faith in him. I said, It's no big deal. You shake it off, man. He was extremely upset, don't get me wrong. He even mentioned it the other day that he let us down. I said, We do not look at it that way.

I knew, I said, This is nothing. I said, This is a blip, because I had confidence in where we were going to be, what we do.

Don't get me wrong. He took it hard. It was on his birthday, as well. It was tough. I mean, it's lingered. He remembered it coming here, so...

It's great he could redeem himself in his mind. To me, while it was a big deal, y'all got to understand, I still told him where he's going to be is well beyond that.

THE MODERATOR: Gentlemen, congratulations. Thanks for your time.