Chris Gayle, the crew chief of Denny Hamlin, recently spoke about the #11 driver's focus amid the current happenings in his life.

Three year ago frustrations were high with the pit crews at 23XI Racing but a novel hire helped build those units to be among the sport's best.

Open teams earn significantly less money from race purses than chartered organizations and also have the opportunity to miss races should more than 40 cars attempt to qualify. However, 23XI Racing co-owner Denny Hamlin made it clear that his organization won't be changing anything this year.

Denny Hamlin says he is unfazed that a three-judge federal appellate panel vacated an injunction that required NASCAR to recognize 23XI, which he owns with Michael Jordan, and Front Row as chartered teams as part of an antitrust lawsuit.