INDIANAPOLIS -- When Bubba Wallace bent down to kiss the bricks on Sunday, he was far from the only person taking part in the time-honored tradition. In fact, the post-race celebration showed off 23XI Racing's different approach to team-building.
Members of all three teams were out on the frontstretch taking part in a celebratory photo session at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. This was not by mistake; it was an intentional move by team co-owner Denny Hamlin.
"All of our teams, you'll probably see out there, all three teams are going to be out there taking photos because besides race day, they all wear the same uniforms and each person works on everyone else's car," Hamlin said in response to a question from AltDriver.
What does this mean? Obviously, teams throughout the Cup Series garage work together at times. Hendrick Motorsports even moved all four teams into one shop instead of having them split up into two different buildings to help build unity.
As Hamlin explained, where his organization's approach differs is the distribution of responsibilities. The crew chiefs each have specific roles in the chain of command during the week as they all push toward the common goal of making each team better.
This starts with crew chief Charles Denike, who joined the team ahead of this season and took over the No. 23 team.
"He is no rookie," Hamlin said of Denike. "By the letter of the law, he's a rookie crew chief, but he is buttoned up. He, to me, reminds me a lot of the great crew chiefs that I've worked with, and his work ethic and how prepared he is. I think a lot of that comes from his military background.
"I just feel like he's adapted really, really well, and he's such a great team player in his role at 23XI. He kind of heads up the strategy for all the cars. All of our crew chiefs work for all the cars. We have a very different kind of chain of command at 23XI. Our team is built entirely different than most all the other race teams and how they work."
As Denike explained in greater detail during his post-race press conference, he handles strategy, analytics, and systems.
Billy Scott, Tyler Reddick's crew chief, focuses on the setup and the simulation during the week. Davin Restivo, Riley Herbst's crew chief, focuses on aerodynamics.
The three crew chiefs work on these areas separately before coming together to share information. They then collectively figure out the best approach for the race weekend.
This collaboration continues as they head to the track and take part part in pre-race sessions. It's only when the drivers are on the track that they compete with each other for points and wins.
"So maybe that's 50 or 60% of our effort during the week," Denike said. "Then we can back up and kind of look globally across the rest of what we need to do. The team, the company works incredibly well together to build the cars, to fuel the cars, and to come execute on the weekend.
"It's from when we unload and go through inspection, all the way to the reason that I was a little late getting here because we had the entire company out there taking a photo together because it's a win for the company, not just for the 23 team specifically."
This approach already helped one driver punch his ticket to the playoffs. The expectation is that Reddick will make it on points. Herbst does not playoff expectations as a rookie, but the team wants to see him make positive strides while gaining experience in the Cup Series car.
Will this approach continue to pay dividends for 23XI Racing as the season continues and into the next? The outcome remains unclear, but Hamlin certainly sees potential as he tries to keep building his team into consistent championship contender.