For The Win spoke with Olympic star Caeleb Dressel about his quick to the pool for the International Swimming League’s third season.
Just four weeks after Caeleb Dressel climbed out of the pool for the final time at the Tokyo Olympics, he’s jumping back in the water for another competition.
After bringing home five gold medals — one of five swimmers to ever do that in a single Games — the now-seven-time Olympic gold medalist will be in Naples, Italy this weekend for the start of the International Swimming League (ISL) season.
The ISL is a flashy pro swim league with competitions that are totally different from a typical swim meet, including a WWE-esque style of flair and pizzazz. It consists of 10 teams — the inaugural season had eight teams — from around the globe with some of the world’s top swimmers making up the international rosters and competing in a regular season, playoffs and championship final. The Cali Condors were the 2020 champions, and 25-year-old Dressel is the reigning ISL MVP.
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Other top swimmers competing this season include Americans Lilly King, Natalie Hinds and Ryan Murphy; Australia’s Emma McKeon; Canada’s Kylie Masse; Japan’s Yui Ohashi; Great Britain’s Adam Peaty and Russia’s Kliment Kolesnikov.
The prize money on the line is also getting boost this season, increasing by about 10 to 12 percent, per the ISL. And that includes a $20,000 bonus for the top finisher in the final MVP race.
Competition for the third ISL season began Thursday, and for swimming fans still hungry for more can catch some of the matches on CBS or CBS Sports Network, starting Saturday at noon ET on CBSSN and Sunday at noon ET on CBS. The ISL’s website is also live-streaming the competitions.
For The Win recently spoke with Dressel before his departure for Italy about his Olympics recovery, why he likes the ISL and keeps coming back, especially right after the Games, and what he knows about the league’s latest COVID-19 protocols, as specifics remain unclear.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Manuel anchored Team USA’s women’s 4×100-meter freestyle relay with a 52.96 split and helped the team win a bronze medal behind Australia and Canada. Individually, she also competed in the 50-meter freestyle and tied for sixth in her semifinal heat but failed to advance to the final.
After the swimming program ended, Manuel posted a thoughtful reflection on Instagram and wrote that she’ll “remember this point in [her] career forever” because she “didn’t give up.” At Olympic Trials in June, she missed the final for the 100-meter freestyle — an event she won gold in at the 2016 Rio Games — and opened up about diagnosed with overtraining syndrome in March. She also said she had been dealing with depression and anxiety, which began to impact her physically this year.
For The Win spoke with Manuel — who was promoting her partnership with Toyota — about her experience at this summer’s unique Olympics, athletes’ mental health and what’s up next for the 25-year-old star.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
At 27 years old, American swimmer Natalie Hinds made her first Olympic team after initially retiring in 2016.
After a disappointing performance at the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials, Natalie Hinds’ swimming career came to an abrupt and devastating end. Or so she thought. She quietly waved goodbye to the sport, graduated from Florida and moved to Atlanta for an internship in digital sports media.
But her love for swimming never completely evaporated.
And now, five years after retiring and letting go of her Olympic dream, the 27-year-old swimmer has mounted an incredible comeback, qualifying for her first Games as one of the oldest first-time American Olympic swimmers in history.
“I still have moments where I’m like, ‘Wow, I’m at [training] camp to go to the Olympics,'” Hinds recently told For The Win. “Like, this is so crazy. And you really prepare for this moment, but you really can’t fully prepare for the actual moment.”
At the Rio trials in 2016, she finished 40th in the 100-meter freestyle — her highest finish in three events and a far distance away from the top-2 swimmers who qualified for the 2016 Games. (She also competed in the 2012 trials.)
“I was just disappointed, and I felt like I really just let distractions get to me throughout that past year,” Hinds said. “I kind of just didn’t want to swim anymore. I wasn’t swimming fast, and it wasn’t enjoyable for me at the time. So that just kind of equals being miserable.”
A 20-time All-American Florida Gator, she was embarrassed and didn’t announce her departure from the pool. So the then-22-year-old Midland, Texas native began working for Turner Sports and eventually Bleacher Report, while coaching swimming as a second job. And that was about as close as she got to watching swimming or keeping up with the sport on an elite level “because it was just still painful.”
But something changed for her as she watched the 2018 U.S. nationals.
“I think it just took me seeing how much fun they were having at nationals to start to get the wheels turning like, ‘Is that something that I’d want to do?'” Hinds said. “I did a lot of soul-searching before I decided that I was going to give this a try.”
Hinds tested herself at first to see if she could consistently get up at 5 a.m. for an early workout at the pool and have the drive to keep going. By Fall 2018, at 24 years old, she was training with Athens Bulldog Swim Club under Georgia Bulldogs coach Jack Bauerle and competed in her first meet that December.
But like her exit from the sport two years before, Hinds didn’t tell anyone she was attempting a comeback. She said she worried about announcing her return and swimming poorly again, so she decided to mostly keep it quiet — part of her efforts to grow as a person and athlete, limiting outside distractions and pressure to focus purely on herself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Jd_IoY3keQ
And now, Hinds made her first Olympic team as one of the oldest swimmers on Team USA and the second-oldest member of the American women’s team competing in the pool, behind 31-year-old four-time Olympian Allison Schmitt. (Overall, marathon swimmer Ashley Twichell is the oldest first-time Olympic swimmer at 31, per USA Swimming, and she’ll swim the open-water 10K at the Games.)
With a time of 53.84, Hinds finished fourth in the 100 freestyle, which was strong enough to qualify her for the 4×100-meter freestyle relay team and bring her remarkable comeback story full circle. She dropped nearly three seconds off her time — an eternity in sprints — compared to the 2016 trials.
“I’m a completely different swimmer, ” Hinds said.
“You learned about yourself when you’re not swimming all the time,” she continued. “A mental break for me was really good. It allowed me to reset and just fall in love with the sport again because you obviously don’t want to do something you don’t love or that you’re not having fun doing.”
The opening heats for the 4×100 free relay will close Saturday night’s lineup at the Tokyo Aquatics Center (about 7:40 a.m. ET), and the final is set for Sunday morning (about 10:45 p.m. ET Saturday).
Abbey Weitzeil, Erika Brown, Olivia Smoliga and Natalie Hinds celebrate at the medal ceremony for the 100 freestyle Olympic Trials in June. (Rob Schumacher-USA TODAY Sports)
Since her swimming comeback, Hinds said she’s much more focused on nutrition and recovery. She’s mindful of her physical and mental health and said she her emphasis on visualization has alleviated some pressure and helped her when she’s behind the blocks ready to race. Shutting out social media ahead of Olympic Trials in June was also key. She now listens to audio books and began weaving “as a way to cope with the anxiety,” which she then turned into a side business, Loominary Design, last year.
Hinds’ new approach to her training is working for her now that she’s in Tokyo for the Summer Olympics, and some on the team see her as a natural leader, despite being an Olympic rookie.
“I’ve gotten to know Natalie over the last few years, and she’s an awesome young person,” said Team USA’s women’s coach Greg Meehan, who also coaches at Stanford. “Fiercely competitive, and to see her in that moment at trials make her first Olympic team was really special. …
“She has this energy, and it makes everybody around comfortable. And so when you when you take that personal setting and bring it over to the pool, or you add to the competitive piece once we’re outside of training and actually go into competition, we are really blessed that she’s here with us.”
Simone Manuel and Natalie Hinds at the U.S. Olympic Trials in June. (Tom Pennington/Getty Images)
In 2015, Manuel, Neal and Hinds finished 1-2-3 in the 100-yard free, respectively, becoming the first Black swimmers to sweep an event at NCAA championships in what Hinds described as “a turning point” for her. She began working to create experiences for Black people and people of color interested in swimming and elite levels of the sport through speaking engagements, free swim lessons and collaborations with USA Swimming and Team BLAC — the Black Leadership in Aquatics Coalition, which was formed in 2020 after a Minneapolis police officer murdered George Floyd.
Hinds said she’s the only Black swimmer on Georgia’s pro team, and she and her white peers have had uncomfortable conversations about racism in and outside of swimming. Her efforts to talk about racism in swimming and help diversify the sport have been aided by her white teammates, she said, though she acknowledged other swimmers of color might not feel similarly.
“Me making the Olympics is really cool, personally,” Hinds said. “But it also is an amazing win for the Black community and the minority community because I’m the fourth [American] Black female [swimmer] to make the Olympic swim team. And as amazing as that is, it’s really sad also.
“So it’s just important that I’m always representing a larger group of people and doing what I can to help, so there’s more people that come after me. And hopefully they can see me and be like, ‘Wow, she literally was living a completely different life and decided to come back.'”
Hinds’ return to the pool after retiring is an example for swimmers in college or their 20s to keep pushing, Meehan said. While many first-time Olympic swimmers for Team USA are in their teens and early 20s — there are 11 teenagers on the U.S. Olympic swim team this summer — Hinds proves that doesn’t always have to be the case.
“Obviously, [Hinds is a] fantastic human being,” said Olympic swimmer Lilly King. “I love just being around her and getting to know her more and more each day. But I think it just goes to show that this sport isn’t just for young girls, which is what it was even just 10 years ago. You can look back and find a different way of training and really make the best out of it. You just have to be determined to do it.”
Still, when Hinds hit the wall in the 100 free at Olympic Trials and saw her fourth-place finish, the reality of her Olympic dream coming true didn’t immediately sink in, she said. She didn’t realize she was going to the Tokyo Games until after the medal ceremony when she returned to the warm-down pool.
It was at the end of competition for the night, and no one was really around her, she said. It was quiet, and when she finally had a moment to herself, it hit her.
“In a matter of 10 seconds, I had gone through two and a half years of feelings,” Hinds said. “So it was a very overwhelming feeling, and I was not really able to stand. I just needed a moment to breathe through it and like accept that I’m really proud of myself.
“I felt very grateful — just very grateful that it was me who made this team, and I was grateful that I was able to leave [no] stone unturned. And it worked out for me.”
The second season of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s show, Lost Speedways, premieres in July.
To say Dale Earnhardt Jr. is a fan of old race tracks is an understatement. He loves them. He loves talking about them, learning about them and preserving them in whatever way he can.
His passion is the backbone of Lost Speedways, his Peacock series that explores shuttered, dilapidated and abandoned race tracks around the country, as the (mostly) retired NASCAR driver investigates the tracks’ histories, their legends and their failures.
When Season 1 debuted in 2020, Earnhardt admitted his motivations behind the show “were purely selfish” because he loves “the mystique and eeriness of abandoned things, especially when those things are race tracks.”
All eight episodes of Lost Speedways Season 2 will premiere Thursday, so For The Win spoke with Dale Jr. about the show, new tracks on NASCAR’s schedule in 2021 and the track he hopes is eventually added to the lineup.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
“I never stopped believing,” Hélio Castroneves told For The Win about his Indy 500 victory.
About 20 hours after taking the checkered flag in one of the biggest motor sports events on the globe, Hélio Castroneves says he’s still “over the moon,” managing the wild waves of emotion he’s experienced since winning Sunday’s Indianapolis 500.
It wasn’t just any win for the 46-year-old Meyer Shank Racing driver. It was his fourth Indy 500 win — with a thrilling finish — and a record-tying victory that elevated the already legendary driver into an elite category with A.J. Foyt (1961, 1964, 1967, 1977), Al Unser Sr. (1970, 1971, 1978, 1987) and Rick Mears (1979, 1984, 1988, 1991).
But win No. 4 came 20 years after his first and 12 years after his most recent one. Previously winning the 2001, 2002 and 2009 Indy 500s all with Team Penske, Castroneves is now the first driver to win “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” with two different teams.
And he did it by patiently out-smarting the field, which set the record for the fastest Indy 500 in history with an average speed of 190.690 miles per hour.
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RETWEET TO CONGRATULATE @H3LIO CASTRONEVES ON HIS FOURTH #INDY500 WIN!
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
So how does it feel, the “four-win” club? Has it sunk in yet, or did it sink in right away?
Actually, [I was] taking pictures right behind [here] with the car, and I saw the newspaper. I’m like, I started getting emotional again. It is an incredible feeling.
Rick Mears sent me a message and like, “Call me when you have a chance. I know you’re busy.” I was like, I want to, I’m dying to call him. We’ve known each other for a long time, and I really cherish the friendship, and so it feels great. And I don’t know how it feels right now, to be honest, like shocked in the moment.
(Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
Have you slept at all?
I went sleep at three o’clock in the morning trying to answer the messages. I had about 400 messages, and half of them was from Team Penske, which is great. My friends from there, which is really cool to have them cheering me up and what a special thing.
After the race, you jumped into Conor Daly’s arms, you celebrated with your old Team Penske teammates, you got a kiss from Mario Andretti. What does it mean that all these other people — a lot of them who are competitors of yours — were so excited to see you win the Indy 500 for the fourth time?
It shows respect in what we did here, was something special. We’re part of history here, been 30 years since a driver won four times, I think. A lot of the fans love to see that. Probably some of the drivers, they say, “If I cannot win, I want to see or I want to be part of history.” Well, it happened. So I feel when everybody expressed their feelings, the way I see it, it’s respect.
I don’t know, I had so many! With the crowd. I have to say, the crowd chanting my name, that was something that I was very touched by. That was something very special.
After you climbed the fence last night, you crouched down for what seemed like a moment of disbelief. What was going through your mind immediately after you won?
I couldn’t contain my emotions. Well, this is something that my mom always said. You know, “You got to be yourself, and if you’re happy, you’re happy. If you’re sad, you’re sad.”
But yesterday, I couldn’t contain my emotions. How incredible we were able to achieve that, the way we did it — that’s why I was so emotional.
You talked about winning one for the old guys and mentioned Tom Brady. If you could have a celebratory drink with Tom Brady tonight, what would you want to say to him?
I want to say how he did it, because that was my first question after the Super Bowl was over. It’s like, “That is incredible.” I want to ask [him] how he did it.
Well, I gotta change that question now. I would say, “How long you want to keep going? I will follow your footsteps.”
Helio Castroneves passes Alex Palou for the lead during the 2021 Indianapolis 500. (Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports)
Simon Pagenaud pointed out between Lap 185 and you making your move to the front, you were just playing along and trying to figure out what was going on. And team co-owner Mike Shank said he realized a little bit earlier that he thought you were playing a chess match. Is that what you were doing, just planning and waiting?
Yeah, my car gave so much opportunity for me to do what I want, and because of that, I had the luxury to be stalking people and not want to pass. And that was my goal, waiting for the right opportunity for us and put myself in the position and studying a little bit my opponents. That, for sure, was a great strategy.
And the team noticed that. I didn’t talk much. I guess they realized what I was doing, and they just let me do my thing. And my thing turned out to be the right thing.
Does that mean you’re the smartest driver out there?
Yesterday, for sure. Not always. But yesterday, for sure.
You said you had the luxury of being able to stalk your opponents. How far out are you planning that? Is that your plan from the beginning of the race, or do things shift a little bit once you get to the halfway point or 50 laps left?
No, that was Lap 2, probably, I already started doing what I need to do, and from there on, that’s what paid off. In fact, the first yellow, we saw so many good contenders have issues, and we’re the same strategy. But we were just a little bit better, and that’s what it takes.
(Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports)
Going into Sunday’s race, did you have any kind of feeling that the day might be a little extra special?
I felt confident. I felt focused. I felt good. I felt trust. I felt ready. But again, this place is not about what you feel. This place, basically, [is about] who is the winner? And I had all the checkbox lists. So I put myself in this opportunity to make that happen.
Is a fifth Indy 500 win possible? Is that something you’d like to pursue?
Absolutely. I mean, come on! People have doubts. Yes, it was 12 years of waiting, but I never stopped believing. That’s why I’m still doing it. And I tell you what, there was a lot of people around me that believed, as well, and that’s why Mike Shank and the entire group believed me. So what we did, what we had, was awesome. But we can do more.
Years from now, what do you hope you remember about Sunday’s race?
I believe there was so many mixed feelings from not only myself but the entire fans. First time after the pandemic that everybody was able to get out their houses and join the incredible day, which was a beautiful day. But I want them to remember, we did something special. Not many people were able to see a four-time win, and yesterday we were able to see that. And I’m glad I was able to provide that.
The winner of NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600 gets a vintage Coke machine. Meet the artist who restores the novelty trophy.
You wouldn’t place an ice-cold, sweating, celebratory beverage down on a valuable painting or a classic car. So treat the restored vintage Coca-Cola vending machine sitting in Victory Lane at Charlotte Motor Speedway the same way.
Or at least, that’s the mindset Terry Kimble hopes NASCAR drivers have after they win the Coca-Cola 600, NASCAR’s longest event and one of it’s “crown jewel” races, and are given the antique machine as one of many prizes.
“They’ll have a can of beer sitting on top of the machine, and I’m thinking, ‘Get that can off the machine! That’s my machine. Get your can off that machine and don’t scratch it,’” Kimble said with a laugh.
As the restorer of the vintage Coca-Cola vending machines for NASCAR’s iconic race, the 70-year-old Grayson, Georgia resident is understandably protective of the finished product. For more than three decades, Kimble has been restoring and selling a variety of vintage memorabilia, such as pedal cars and carousel horses, and says he’s restored more than 500 vending machines, including ones from Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, 7UP and Orange Crush.
Of those 500, most have been Coca-Cola machines from the 1940s and ‘50s, he said. They’re his forte, and he’s been restoring machines presented to the Coke 600 winners since the tradition began in 2010, when Kurt Busch won the race and received the first one. (Kimble did restoration work for The Coca-Cola Company before teaming up with NASCAR and also restores Coke machines for the PGA Tour champion.)
Kurt Busch after winning the 2010 Coca-Cola 600. (HHP/Harold Hinson, courtesy of Charlotte Motor Speedway)
“The 600 trophy is kind of unique; it’s different, the trophy itself, and then to go along with it and pair it with [the vintage Coke machine is] awesome,” said Austin Dillon, who won the 2017 race. “It was just an added bonus to winning the race, something cool. But it’s an awesome trophy to go along with everything else that goes along with winning the Coke 600.”
Martin Truex Jr. has two Coke machines after winning the 600 in 2016 and 2019. One is in his basement bar, while the other is at the Truex Management Group office. After winning the 2011 and 2013 races, Kevin Harvick has his two machines on display in his house.
“I guess you can say we received a classic piece of history for winning a classic race in historical fashion,” Truex would later say about his 2016 victory, when he set the record for most laps led in the race (392 of 400 laps). “It might have felt like a dream-kind-of win, but it was the real thing.”
(Courtesy of Terry Kimble)
What’s old can be new again
Even though Kimble is restoring the vintage machines, he said he considers himself an artist, so when it’s complete, he believes he helped create a work of art.
“It’s a painting to me,” he said.
He said he’s always had a thing for nostalgia and Americana, and one day, he came across a vintage Coca-Cola machine. He thought it was stunning. It was unlike anything he had ever seen before, and he immediately became hooked.
So in 1989, Kimble said he retired from the Atlanta Police Department, and by 1990, he had opened his Georgia shop, Remember When Collectibles, and began selling and restoring memorabilia. Eventually, it was renamed to Remember When Restorations, as Kimble decided to focus on refurbishing Coke and other pop vending machines.
More than 30 years later, Kimble has sent restored machines all over the world to cities such as Moscow, Istanbul and London and even restored two for President Jimmy Carter, he said.
“I always compare a Coke machine or soda machine to a classic car, the vintage cars,” he said. “They’re made out of metal. They have a paint job. They have motors. They perform a function.”
President Jimmy Carter and Terry Kimble (Courtesy of Terry Kimble)
It takes about six weeks to completely restore a Coca-Cola machine, Kimble said, and he often works with a small team to get the job done. When it’s time to begin restoring one for the Coca-Cola 600, he goes to his warehouse stocked with vintage machines and carefully selects one that differs enough from the previous year’s trophy.
And the restoration process is intense and tedious, but delicate at times.
Kimble said he starts by completely disassembling the machine — including taking out and replacing all the insulation and the refrigeration system — and restores the internal parts and replaces any necessary pieces.
To remove paint, rust and anything else attached to the antique, the machine is sandblasted with garnet (because it’s better for the metal, he said), and a coat of automotive red paint is applied. If needed, some parts are re-chromed and polished. He also has an artist on staff who specifically repaints the embossed Coca-Cola letters on the outside of the machine, he said.
The machine the winner of the 2021 Coca-Cola 600 will receive is from 1949. It’s white on top, and the remaining two-thirds of it is a vibrant red with “Drink Coca-Cola” written in embossed letters on the front, Kimble said. The drum inside it holds 39 bottles for a steep price of a dime each.
Once the machine is painted and reassembled, Kimble adds some embellishments to enhance the final product’s authenticity.
“I personally put decals on it, just like the originals,” he said. “I don’t deviate away from originality because it’s like a classic car. You don’t want to pinstripe a classic car or put decals on it that don’t belong just to make it look pretty. I’m very particular about authenticity because if you do things authentic, then they hold their value. They even go up in value every year.”
Early on in his restoration career, Kimble would buy vintage machines for $200 to $400 apiece, and they’re worth up to $2,000 now, he said. On eBay, old Coke machines are currently for sale for up to $9,800.
‘A pretty sweet trophy’
When Kimble completes the restoration process, the vintage Coke machines are totally functional, and some NASCAR drivers take advantage of that.
Brad Keselowski, who won the 2020 Coca-Cola 600, keeps his machine fully stocked with glass bottles and on display with his car collection at Keselowski Advanced Manufacturing in Statesville, North Carolina. Positioned across from his 2012 Cup Series championship-winning car, he often offers bottles to his visitors.
— Charlotte Motor Speedway (@CLTMotorSpdwy) May 25, 2021
“That one’s super cool; I wish I had one,” Joey Logano said after noticing Keselowski, his teammate, posing with his Coke Machine. “I saw Brad take a picture of his or something this week on his social [media accounts] and I thought, ‘Man, I want that.’ I was a little jealous. …
“So that’s definitely, to me, a unique, little gift and something that you’ll most likely have the rest of your life and have a really cool story behind it of how you got it.”
Before Truex won the 2016 Coca-Cola 600, he had no idea the vintage Coke machine was for him and not just for post-race photos. Before Dillon won the 2017 race — the first checkered flag of his career — he didn’t either.
“Then afterwards, obviously, it was in Victory Lane, and I was pumped,” Dillon said. “All vintage Coke stuff’s pretty cool, and [I] feel like there’s huge collectors out there of Coke memorabilia, and I’ve got a pretty sweet trophy there with the throwback fridge.”
Austin Dillon after winning the 2017 Coca-Cola 600. (HHP/Harold Hinson, courtesy of Charlotte Motor Speedway)
Despite Kimble’s love for the restoration process, he said his favorite part is when the Coca-Cola 600 winner drives the car into Victory Lane, and his machine is on display for everyone in the grandstands and at home to see. He said he feels like he was “destined” to restore old machines, and in his 12th year doing this for NASCAR, he has no intention of retiring.
“They talk to me,” Kimble said about the Coke machines. “All the chrome and the automotive paint, some of them light up. They’re actually beautiful machines when they’re finished.”
IndyCar star Scott Dixon will start Sunday’s Indy 500 on the pole after qualifying with an incredible 231.685 mph average.
With a blazing 231.685 miles per hour four-lap average, reigning IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon won the coveted pole for Sunday’s Indianapolis 500 and will lead the 33-car field to green at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He won by just .03 miles per hour at the end of the two-day qualifying process.
It’s his fourth Indy 500 pole after also winning it in 2017, 2015 and 2008 — when he won the iconic race from his No. 1 starting spot. And although the 40-year-old Chip Ganassi Racing driver said winning the Indy 500 pole is one of the most challenging things to do, he knows it promises nothing about the race itself.
“It’s obviously the best starting position,” Dixon told For The Win. “But unfortunately, it doesn’t guarantee you anything. It doesn’t even guarantee going into the first corner first.”
Ahead of the 2021 Indy 500, For The Win spoke with the six-time IndyCar champ about his pole win, the magic of the Indy 500 itself and what kind of milk he hopes he’s celebrating with Sunday afternoon.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Most of us can’t fathom what it’s like to drive at 231 miles an hour. Can you describe what that genuinely feels like?
The hardest part for us is the is the fact that you did it the day before [in Saturday’s qualifying round], but you had 24 hours to sit on it, and you never actually go out in the car until that happens again. And the process is now that you’re holding the car off on your out lap, so your first lap out is kind of slow. You don’t really feel the car until you turn the boost up, you go around, down the backstraight [into] Turns 3 into 4, and then you’re going in to Turn 1 at 240-plus miles now.
And your mind is telling your foot to stay flat and to keep it flat through the corner, but you have human instincts, right? Like, this could be a pretty big crash or a big moment, and whether you come out the other side in one piece, So, mentally, it’s very tough.
It’s a crazy lead up to this race. The race for pole is such an event in itself that, you know, it’s something that the team wants to do. … It’s really nerve-racking. Emotionally, it’s crazy. It’s one of the toughest things. And I think unfortunately, being a veteran of the sport, having done it for so long, it hasn’t got any better. I was so nervous on Saturday, and then on Sunday, I was so nervous.
In the moment right before the Indy 500 is about to go green, what’s going through your mind in that moment?
Typically, after that long week of just talking about the race, you have these slight premonitions like, “We’re gonna do this, that person’s gonna do that.” For me, it’s actually really nice to get in the car. You kind of by yourself, you kind of feel at home. That hype is right there, and I think for all of us, you’re just wanting to get into that race and get it over and done with, to be honest.
The start is tricky. It can be tricky. But if you start near the front, it should be pretty calm. So you’re just wanting to get into the cycle of the race. And it’s never won in the first corner, so you want to be somewhat cautious but also aggressive at the same time.
In the 2017, Indy 500, you were in a terrifying crash, and thankfully, you were OK. But when when something like that happens, does it impact your mindset at all when you return to Indianapolis Motor Speedway for this race?
That one was definitely spectacular, for sure. You try to forget about those things, but unfortunately, they get played on the video boards continuously, and you see the crash a lot. But I think for drivers, when it’s a crash like that, it was just by chance, right?
There was a slower car, it got into trouble, I had nowhere to go, and it was big and spectacular. But for drivers, it’s more if you lose the control of the car yourself, and you spin the car out or you make a mistake. Those are the ones that linger a lot more. That was that was a big crash, and lucky to only walk away with fractured ankle at that point.
But we’re very lucky to be in this year of IndyCar racing and the safety compared to the ’50, ’60s and ’70s. It’s safer in general, but we can still see some crazy things happen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QiAj5oOfz4
If you could add one track to the IndyCar schedule that’s not already on it, what what track would it be?
Oh, that’s a hard one. In North America, probably Watkins Glen [International]. I’d love to go back to upstate New York. And then internationally, I think it’d be fun as well to go back to Surfers Paradise in Australia. That was always my ideal event for IndyCar racing.
And if you were to win the Indy 500, what would be your preferred milk choice?
I think in the early days, you could actually pick strawberry, pick chocolate. I’m a big chocolate fan, so I would pick chocolate, but now they I think it’s only skim, 2 percent or full. … I’ll go for the 2 percent. I like the 2 percent. That’s what I have with my cereal.
After retiring from NASCAR, Jimmie Johnson will make his IndyCar debut this weekend.
Jimmie Johnson didn’t retire from racing last year; he just retired from NASCAR after 19 seasons in the Cup Series, seven championships and 83 checkered flags.
Now, Johnson is about to try something new, something he’s been dreaming about since he was a kid growing up in southern California.
“IndyCar was the early dream for me,” Johnson told For The Win. “I’m excited. I’m optimistic about it. I’ve got a long way to go.”
He’ll be a 45-year-old rookie in the open-wheeled IndyCar Series, competing in 13 road and street courses for Chip Ganassi Racing this season beginning Sunday with the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park. And even though the ride has a totally different look, he’s still behind the wheel or a No. 48 car, which veteran IndyCar champ Tony Kanaan will pilot for the oval races.
For The Win recently spoke with Johnson about shifting into IndyCar, the extreme challenges that come with competing in a new style of racing and the silly fire suit controversy he started on social media.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
1. How does it feel to be a 45-year-old rookie competing in IndyCar, something that’s a totally different style of racing than what you’ve been doing for the last couple decades?
Definitely a rookie. I can vividly remember the feeling and headspace of being a rookie coming into Cup. And it’s very similar — the concerns you have, in your mind, self doubt, the curiosity of what’s ahead. How am I going to do? Where am I weak? Where am I strong? All that stuff’s still very much the same.
But I do feel like being older and more experienced is helpful. And I know I’ve been through this before, and I know I’m going to survive it, regardless of the outcome. Barber is going to be full of surprises. And then they’re rolling to St. Pete, and I’ve never been on a street tire or street track, and that’s gonna be full of surprises. But I’m just gonna roll with it. It’s such a fun car to drive. I can’t describe just how intense and how fun these beasts are to drive, and I love every time I get behind the wheel of one.
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2. Can compare how it physically feels for you to drive an open-wheeled car like that versus a stock car?
Bristol in qualifying is similar. Dover in qualifying is similar. But in an IndyCar, that’s every lap all the time. The intensity is so high because the vehicle’s downforce performance and the weight of the vehicle and the tire — they’re just just a far superior vehicle. And then you add in the fact that you don’t have any power-steering assist, and the workload goes up 10 times.
3. Have there been times driving an Indy car when you felt scared or out of your depths?
Yeah, basically every lap I’ve made so far [laughs]. When you leave pit road on cold tires, it is so evil until you get enough tire temperature and tire pressure that you scare yourself and you pull back. And I’m learning that’s when you need to keep pushing because the quicker you can gain temperature in the surface of the tire, the quicker that turns into tire pressure, and the better the car is.
When I first started, it would take seven or eight laps to hit that target air pressure number in the tire. And now I’m able to do it on lap three or four with my teammates. So that’s been a big hurdle for me to get over, [and] that’s just one example. And then once the tires are up at a track like Barber and the commitment level that’s required to put up a lap time, my senses have never been through anything like that before. It’s insane.
It sounds like it.
These guys make it look easy, which is the crazy part.
4. Do you feel like you’ll get there as well, though?
Yeah, it just takes time. I’m under a second off my teammates at the last Barber test session — closer by a half a second off, which we’re all just ecstatic about. The last few tenths are always the hardest, and that’s what takes years and years and years. So I feel like I will make some quick gains and get to a certain point, and then I’m just going to need the reps.
5. Is there anything that’s a clear No. 1 goal for you this season?
I need to make sure that I run every lap or as many laps as I can, and that means being smart trying to make passes, being smart on my out laps on cold tires. I’m just literally at that stage learning tracks, where every lap really does make a difference, and I learned something new.
6. Is winning a race a realistic goal for you at this point?
I don’t feel like it is. I’m not saying it can’t happen. Strategy is a big part of IndyCar racing. They only make two pit stops in most cases. So fuel strategy and execution by team and driver in the race can put you in a position to win, but I think in an all-out, shootout, heads-up race, I don’t see me being there this year.
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7. What course are you most excited to race on?
I would have to say Long Beach. That was an annual stop for me as the kid growing up on the West Coast and the place where I heard an IndyCar scream by on the back straightaway as I crossed the walkover bridge, and thought, “Man, I’ve got to find a way to get one of these cars and be out there.” So 25, 30 years later to being in IndyCar and being inside the ropes is really special for me.
8. What course are you most nervous to race on?
I have heard that the Belle Isle track is just so violent and so rough. And it’s a doubleheader weekend — race Saturday, race Sunday. So I’ll know more this week [after Barber] about where I am physically and how much more I need to strengthen myself to go again a second day. So but that’s the one I probably have the most concern about right now.
9. You’ve done so much other racing between the end of the NASCAR season and the beginning of the IndyCar season, and it seems like you’ve had a chance to get to know some of the other IndyCar drivers a little better than you had before. How would you describe your relationship with some of these guys?
I feel very well received. I think there’s a lot of respect we have both directions. I’ve been to a handful of different IndyCar test sessions and races and stuff, and I think people can see that I really do respect their craft and their abilities. And at the same time, I think largely through racing in the 24 Hours of Daytona, I’ve been able to build a lot of friendships with with current drivers.
That’s where I met Dario and Marino Franchitti, it’s the first place I met Scott Dixon. So I feel like some of these other races I’ve put myself in have really opened my friend group up.
10. Whether it’s a teammate or fellow competitor, has any IndyCar driver given you some advice that’s stuck with you as you prepare for a totally different style of racing?
My teammates have been so helpful — Scott [Dixon], Marcus [Ericsson], Alex [Palou], of course, Dario. They’ve been above and beyond, and I am so thankful.
One thing that does stand out to me is after the Sebring race, I made a couple of big mistakes and was feeling down and out and lost a little bit of confidence based on what I did. And I got a text from Alexander Rossi. It’s like, “Hey, man, chin up. I know how hard the transition is. I tried to get around Bathurst and the V8 supercar last year and had plenty of issues. Tons of respect for you making the switch, and chin up.”
And I know him. I’ve had some drinks with him in the past, and I’ve hung out with him socially. But for him to send that text was pretty telling to me. I was like, “That’s cool.” I really appreciated that text from him.
11. So, what’s the deal with the fire suits with the straight-leg, fitted style in IndyCar versus the boot cut in NASCAR? You posted a photo on social media recently that had some NASCAR guys calling you a traitor. Is that a personal preference or what?
Yeah, culturally, each leg cut has its home — although they were all peg legs way back in the day. But [in] IndyCar, I feel like weight is such an important item for the for open-wheeled cars, and the open-wheel suit is much lighter than the NASCAR style bootleg-cut suit. And when teams are drilling holes in bolts and shaving the bolts down to where there’s only two threads showing on the other side of a nut to save fractions of an ounce, when your suit’s two pounds heavier from one version to the other, it’s a pretty easy decision what you’re gonna do there.
If you hold up my NASCAR suit from last year to my suit this year, it is a noticeable difference in weight.
Oh, wow. I thought it’d be related to footwork or something like that, but it’s weight.
It is weight. And the footwork side — climbing in the cockpit of an Indy car is so tight that I feel many feared the bootleg material would kind of ball up, and it’d be hard to put your legs through the bulkhead of the tub of the Indy car to get up to the pedals. So actually, there’s less material, less stuff to snag, less stuff to bunch up. And then it’s just way lighter.
From Dale Earnhardt Sr. to Ryan Newman, here’s how NASCAR responded to some of it’s worst wrecks with safety advancements.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Ryan Newman has no memory of his spectacularly violent crash during the last lap of the 2020 Daytona 500.
He doesn’t remember the team of NASCAR first responders who helped save his life after his No. 6 Ford flipped, landed upside down and slid on the track with fire and sparks shooting out of it. He doesn’t recall firefighters extinguishing the flames, a paramedic crawling into his upside-down car to assess his condition or how the safety team rolled his car over before severing the roof, extracting him and getting him into an ambulance.
But he knows exactly what happened, thanks to someone compiling a YouTube video with several angles of the crash.
“I’ve watched every angle that I could possibly watch,” Newman said last week. “The biggest problem is I don’t have any memory of my own angle, which is the ultimate angle. And that’s gone, and that will always be gone no matter how many times I watch a replay or different variations of that replay.”
https://youtu.be/p11IUYaf4XM?t=30
He said he studies his own wrecks, as well as ones he’s not involved in, for one major reason: safety. Aided in part by his engineering degree from Purdue, he’s one of the most relentless and vocal safety advocates in the NASCAR garage.
It has been 20 years since Dale Earnhardt Sr. was killed in a wreck at the Daytona 500, and the cars are clearly much safer. That crash led to dramatic changes, just as Newman’s incident forced NASCAR to investigate what happened last year and respond with safety advancements and adjusted practices.
“I’ve lost some good friends,” Newman said, specifically mentioning Kenny Irwin Jr., who died in 2000 after crashing at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Irwin was one of three drivers in NASCAR’s three national series to die that year as the result of a crash, along with Adam Petty and Tony Roper.
“We will always continue to learn from those that we lose and those that we don’t lose, as long as we keep focused on the things that we need to to increase our level of safety.”
Rescuing Ryan Newman
It took just shy of 16 minutes from the time Newman’s car stopped sliding on its roof and came to a stop to get the driver out and into an ambulance. He was taken to a nearby Daytona Beach hospital, put in a medically induced coma and suffered what he described as a “brain bruise.” He was released from the hospital less than 48 hours after the wreck.
Ryan Newman and his daughters leaving Halifax Medical Center less than two days after his 2020 Daytona 500 crash.(Roush Racing via AP)
About 200 first responders, including firefighters and medical personnel, are on the roster at Daytona International Speedway, and they’re trained to handle a variety of incidents. And really, they have to be, especially when the iconic track is famous for its wrecks in an already inherently violent sport.
In those 16 minutes, the track services crew put out the flames and worked on the car, and the NASCAR AMR safety team — which includes paramedics, physicians and neurologists — tended to Newman, NASCAR executive vice president and chief racing development officer Steve O’Donnell said.
The only moment Newman wasn’t being treated in that time frame was when they rolled the car over before extracting him.
“Prior to Daytona of last year, [the safety team] met in Daytona, and they practiced a rollover procedure, which was great,” said NASCAR vice president of racing operations John Bobo. “It instills that muscle memory that allows emergency responders to respond when they need [to].”
Bobo compared it to an orchestra, which would make Todd Marshall the conductor.
As manager of NASCAR’s track services, Marshall watched Newman’s crash unfold from race control in the tower above Daytona International Speedway. As soon as the cars began wrecking, he said he began to estimate where Newman’s car and the others would ultimately stop so the emergency response teams would know precisely where to go on the 2.5-mile track.
“What made it complex was the individual processes,” Marshall, a retired fire and rescue captain, said via email. “The crews had to handle a roll-over procedure, a vehicle extrication and driver extraction of a driver who is injured. These steps by themselves are low frequency events throughout a race season, [but] the on-track personnel handled each one in succession, as they are trained and had a positive outcome.
“The other area that makes an incident like this a little more complex is [the] span of control with the number of people operating on the incident scene, and the crews performed well.”
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Preparation and communication are crucial, Marshall added, and his and others’ experiences working in fire and rescue services enable them to respond to wrecks calmly and purposefully. He said he wasn’t scared, but simply concerned for Newman’s life.
NASCAR’s track services crew prepares for moments like this through training totaling 55 hours, 41 of which are hands-on and completed annually, Marshall noted. They further prepare with track-specific training about 60 days before an event, Bobo said, and all those rehearsals attempt to anticipate a huge variety of scenarios with the help of training cars.
“We bring out stock cars with fire pans under and will light them on fire,” Bobo said. “We will actually take people through practice extractions of cutting the windshields. … We’ll have our ER physicians practice procedures while upside down hanging in a car. So we do everything we can think of.”
Responding, investigating and adapting
Established safety systems worked as designed to save Newman, but NASCAR wants to guard against complacency. Earnhardt’s death two decades ago “accelerated” NASCAR’s effort to innovate and adjust, O’Donnell said.
“It took something that should have been proactively worked on, and we learned,” Newman said of Earnhardt’s accident. “And it was like, ‘OK, that’s it. That’s the last straw. We need to do something here.’ There’s no doubt in my mind that a lot of it is because of who it was, but that’s the way life works.”
Dale Earnhardt slammed into the wall while he getting hit by Ken Schrader in a crash that killed him during the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500. (AP Photo/Bob Sweeten)
In the years following the legendary seven-time champion’s death, NASCAR made major adjustments to its safety rules, including drivers being required to wear full-face helmets, plus a head and neck restraint called the HANS device. The governing body also eventually mandated tracks install SAFER barriers designed to absorb the energy of a crash. More recently in 2015, NASCAR began requiring seven‑ or nine‑point restraints on seat belts to further restrict how much gravity can pull drivers out of their seats if the car is upside down.
“The culture is what Dale Earnhardt changed,” O’Donnell said. Since Earnhardt’s death, no drivers in NASCAR’s three national series have died as the result of a crash.
“Certainly, the HANS device and SAFER barriers were huge,” O’Donnell continued. “But it’s our ability to, each and every day, talk about technology, talk about safety and continue to have people in the industry approach us about those ideas versus just talking about how to make the car go faster.”
Prior to last year’s crash, Newman already had a significant impact on NASCAR safety with what’s known as the “Newman Bar.” After multiple scary wrecks at Daytona and Talladega Superspeedway involving Newman — plus his lobbying of NASCAR — a reinforcement was added to the roll cage in 2013 to further protect the driver.
Ryan Newman slides upside down on the track after crashing with Kevin Harvick at Talladega Superspeedway in 2009. (AP Photo/Mark Young)
Following an investigation into the 2020 Daytona 500 last-lap crash, NASCAR’s safety enhancements included mandating two additional roll bars and a reinforced driver’s seat window net and mounting, which is designed to keep the drivers and their body parts inside the car in the event of a crash.
“We’ve really had access to incredibly powerful new tools, new sensors and new analysis tools,” said Dr. John Patalak, NASCAR senior director of safety and engineering. “We’ve been able to capture more data. It makes us smarter, we can make better decisions and we always have different ongoing research safety projects. …
“Computer modeling is a really big advancement for us and will allow us to really dive deep into certain things that we were blind to in the past, that the crash test dummies just couldn’t tell us.”
For on-track first responders, resting roof training for an upside down car has been more widespread at NASCAR’s tracks, Bobo said, and new discoveries or safety developments are detailed at a safety and racing operation summit at the beginning of each year.
Looking ahead to NASCAR’s Next-Gen car — which was originally scheduled to debut this season but was pushed back a year because of COVID-19-related challenges — NASCAR senior vice president of racing development John Probst said there are several updates that are new to stock cars, including front- and rear-crash structures reinforced with foam.
Probst said more than 4,000 crash simulations have been completed for the new car. Later this year, with the help of the University of Nebraska, NASCAR will crash the car into a SAFER barrier to see how it holds up against the simulations, looking for new ways to improve the structure.
“When something like this has happened, the most productive emotion is curiosity,” Bobo said. “So we have been as curious as possible about everything that we’ve done. How can we do it better?”
How Bubba Wallace — with the help of his team owners, Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin — hopes to change NASCAR.
During Black History Month, with the series 28 Black Stories in 28 days, USA TODAY Sports examines the issues, challenges and opportunities Black athletes and sports officials face after the nation’s reckoning on race in 2020.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Bubba Wallace was playing Call of Duty at home late one night last May, like it was any other night. Around midnight, he saw for the first time the video of two white men hunting and killing Ahmaud Arbery while he was jogging down a street in Georgia as a third man recorded it.
The NASCAR Cup Series’ lone Black driver had spoken publicly about racism and social issues infrequently. Still early in his career, trying to win his first race was an all-consuming effort.
Something about that video changed him, though. The arbitrary violence against a man because of the color of his skin deeply affected him. Arbery was 25 years old — just a year younger than Wallace was at the time.
The next day, his girlfriend, Amanda, asked if he was OK. He wasn’t. He felt a different kind of heartbreak, nothing remotely comparable to losing a race, he said, describing his immediate reaction in detail last year on Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s podcast.
Not speaking out about unarmed Black people being killed earlier was a huge mistake, he said, but he felt it wasn’t his place. By the time a white police officer killed George Floyd in late May, Wallace could not stay silent any longer.
“It was just kind of the breaking point,” Wallace told For The Win. “I’m seeing everything that’s going on in the world, the innocent killings, and it was just like, ‘Alright, it’s time for me to say something.’ People are asking for my opinion — not that my opinion matters — but they still want to know what the only Black driver has to say.”
He opened up about his anguish and grief. He didn’t mask his emotions when talking about Black people being killed and shared jarring personal stories of police brutality.
Bubba Wallace in June at Martinsville Speedway. (Steve Helber/Pool Photo via USA TODAY Network)
At Atlanta Motor Speedway in early June, he wore a shirt with “I Can’t Breathe” and “Black Lives Matter” written on the front of it. And then the next day — in a moment that ignited a long overdue change in NASCAR — he went on CNN Tonight with Don Lemon and called for the governing body to ban the Confederate flag.
Not two days later, NASCAR did. And just hours after that, Wallace hit the track at Martinsville Speedway with a #BlackLivesMatter paint scheme, creating the ultimate juxtaposition — one that seemed impossible for NASCAR before that.
Wallace becoming more vocal about racism and injustice propelled him into the national spotlight, intensified by some things beyond his control. He didn’t ask to be the possible victim of a suspected hate crime investigated by the FBI only a couple weeks later. And he didn’t ask to be defamed with lies on Twitter by former President Donald Trump.
But moments like that amplified his platform, and — with the help of his new team, 23XI Racing, which is co-owned by Michael Jordan and top driver Denny Hamlin — he wants to harness that attention to create change in and beyond NASCAR. The team brings together a young NASCAR talent, a legendary NBA player and owner and one of the best racers of his generation.
“I really became a household name off the race track,” Wallace said. “And it’s just like, all right, we need to balance that out with some on-track success. So, looking to do that here with our future moving forward with 23XI Racing.”
Wallace has clear goals in mind for himself behind the wheel of the No. 23 Toyota, with one of the greatest champions in sports history on his side. But with a brand-new team competing together for the first time in Sunday’s Daytona 500, he’s still an underdog. For now.
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Hamlin first met Jordan at a then-Charlotte Bobcats game in 2009. They developed a friendship — one that includes playing golf with a good amount of money on the line sometimes — and eventually, Hamlin became the first Jordan brand NASCAR driver.
Jordan — who owns the Charlotte Hornets and grew up in North Carolina — told Hamlin that if he ever seriously considered fielding a car, the NBA legend would want to be a partner. It happened to come together last summer, just as NASCAR was more explicitly embracing inclusivity, and Jordan was sold on it, Hamlin said.
“This was during a very important time in our sport with social justice issues, NASCAR really making a lot of changes, and Michael wanted to be a part of that,” Hamlin said. “I think he saw it as an opportunity as well to expand his horizon and his following into a sport that, probably, [it] doesn’t know a whole lot about.”
After three full seasons with Richard Petty Motorsports, Wallace — the NASCAR Cup Series’ first Black full-time driver since Wendell Scott in 1971 — was set to become a free agent. And “all the pieces of the puzzle fell into place,” Hamlin said.
Jordan’s level of involvement with 23XI Racing has been challenging to determine. He was not made available for an interview, and he has tended to operate silently behind the scenes in his post-playing-career endeavors. But Hamlin said that Jordan — who has, at times, been criticized in his career for not taking a stance on social issues — sees a chance to win races and create change within the sport.
For Hamlin and 23XI Racing’s leadership, Wallace has the qualities they were looking for in a driver.
Of course, he’s passionate about racing and determined to improve his on-track performance. But for a team that’s looking to shake up the hegemony of the mostly white male sport, 23XI could offer Wallace a chance to contend for wins — eventually championships, they hope — while boosting his platform to combat injustice.
Interim team president Steve Lauletta said he was impressed with how Wallace handled himself last year amid controversy and national unrest. He’s eager to see what Wallace can do with the top-level equipment — aided through the technical alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing — the support of Jordan, some big-time sponsors and a spotlight.
“What makes him special,” Lauletta said, “is how he handles himself by just being Bubba Wallace — being the only Black driver at the highest level of a sport, how he got there, how he developed relationships with partners and with people, the guys on this team.
“He’s just genuine, and that in an athlete at the highest level of their sport — to stay that way and to remain genuine but also dedicated to being the best they can be — is sometimes pretty rare.”
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Despite 23XI announcing Wallace as its first driver back in September, Wallace still hasn’t met Jordan in person. They’re expected to meet for the first time this week ahead of Sunday’s season-opening Daytona 500. But Wallace said they often text, and even if they didn’t, he knows what the six-time NBA champ expects.
“Everybody got a chance to watch The Last Dance, and it was able to show us who he is and how he is as a person and a competitor,” Wallace said last week during a press conference.
“At the end of the day he wants winning race cars, he wants a winning race driver and he took an opportunity to invest in me.”
Michael Jordan practices waving the green flag before a NASCAR race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)
23XI Racing appears to have the right pieces to be successful in NASCAR’s premier Cup Series, but it’s still unlikely a new team will hit the track and immediately win — though Wallace said winning the Daytona 500 in the middle of Black History Month would be drawn straight out of a “fairy tale” for him and his novel team. His best Daytona 500 finish was his first attempt at it in 2018 when he came in second, marking the highest finish by a full-time rookie driver in the race’s history. It was also the best Daytona 500 finish by a Black driver.
Jordan appreciates the building process here will take some time, Hamlin said. But that doesn’t mean his standards are by any means low. Riding around in the middle of the pack and earning top-20 finishes isn’t going to cut it.
Hamlin wouldn’t specify a specific number of wins 23XI expects in its debut season; he just wants steady month-to-month improvements throughout the nine-month schedule. Hamlin — who’s racing Sunday for what would be a historic third-straight Daytona 500 win — joked he hopes Wallace and the No. 23 team finish second to his No. 11 car every single week. Wallace said the same thing, but vice versa.
“Getting that first win out of the way is always tough,” said Wallace, who’s still looking for his first Cup victory. In his 112 total races for Richard Petty between 2017 and 2020, he earned just three top-5 finishes and nine top-10s.
“We know we’re gonna lose. We’re gonna lose a lot before we win that first one, and so we have to just go out and contend and just grow and show progress.”
For Wallace, that progress is about learning from his on-track mistakes and building upon his 2020 stats, which included a top-5 finish in Daytona’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 in August and a career-high five top-10 finishes on the year.
But he’s made no secret that his personal goal is two checkered flags in 2021. One win would automatically qualify him for the 10-race playoffs in the fall and give him his first shot at a championship.
Wallace’s new crew chief, Mike Wheeler, who’s also 23XI’s competition director, said aiming for two wins in their debut season is “not unrealistic,” but reaching that level of success takes time. However, he also said Wallace is among the drivers with previously “untapped potential” and just needed a solid opportunity with the right team and top-notch equipment.
“Early on, when I met him, I asked about his goals, what he wants to do, what is what he thinks he can do,” said Wheeler, who also was Hamlin’s crew chief from 2016 to 2018, winning five races together.
“He just wants a shot in a good car. He wants to see if he can do it. He wants to have that opportunity to actually go shine and go win races. But if he realizes the car is fast and he can’t do it, so be it. And that’s a hard thing to swallow because everybody thinks they can hit the home runs and make the winning free throws. But you need to put yourself in that spot first. And so hopefully, I can do that for him, give him the best cars out there and then let him go to work.”
Jordan and his business team are taking more of a hands-off approach, Lauletta said, but they’re “learning the sport quickly from the business standpoint” and relying on Hamlin and the racing experts to lead.
But Jordan isn’t staying that far away.
“He actually texted me [two weeks ago] asking about some technical information about the car,” Wallace said. “So I thought that was pretty interesting. It wasn’t just like, ‘Hey, how we feeling?’ And it was like, ‘Hey, how’s these cars coming along? What’s the info on them?’ So I had to obviously go back and do my homework.”
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As Wallace led the NASCAR garage last year in speaking out against racism and hate, the governing body followed, taking steps to promote inclusivity and welcome Black people, people of color and the LGBTQ community to the sport. And with new high-profile celebrities like Jordan and Pitbull — who’s a co-owner of the also brand-new Trackhouse Racing team — joining the team ownership ranks, it feels like change is happening in NASCAR.
Wallace and 23XI don’t just want to be part of that change; they want to lead it. While they’re devoted to pushing for equality and diversity in the NASCAR community and beyond, Hamlin said a “core value” of the team is leading by example internally with the team and shop.
Of course, the team is still in its infancy, so much of this work will take time. But internally, Lauletta said actively working to hire more women and people of color in a predominantly white male industry is a priority of 23XI Racing.
Bubba Wallace and Denny Hamlin at Daytona International Speedway on Tuesday. (Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)
“Access in the garage so far has been fairly limited for people of color, so we want to work on expanding that,” Lauletta said. “As we move forward, certainly you’ll see a diverse organization and team and our pit crew.”
NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity program helps people of color and women break into the sport through various avenues, and Wallace and Daniel Suárez — who’s driving for Trackhouse Racing — are program alumni. To encourage a broader impact, Hamlin said the team plans to work with the governing body — such as holding town-hall style meetings — to brainstorm further about how to be more inclusive.
Whether racism or injustices directly affect drivers and others in the garage or not, Wallace said everyone needs to find their voices to speak out. And the same goes for promoting diversity and inclusion on a smaller, grassroots level up to the top.
Wallace looks to Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton, the only Black driver in F1, who regularly calls out racism in his discipline and holds those in it accountable for their actions while also dominating the race track. He described Hamliton’s activism as “pretty powerful” and said he’s inspired by the seven-time F1 world champion’s determination to create positive change.
Even in a uniquely money-driven sport like NASCAR where maintaining the status quo could be seen as more profitable, Lauletta said there’s “absolutely” room in racing for activists among athletes. With the support of 23XI’s sponsors, the team feels it could help fuel NASCAR’s broadened future.
“We all have a role,” Wallace said. “Every team, every driver has a role in pushing for change and setting up to be the better man in our society today.
“We could definitely be the catalyst there. We could definitely take the forefront. I was the leader of the charge last year and had some drivers rally behind, and others kind of stayed silent. But we’re pushing to get everybody out there and be vocal.”
