How Mike Wheeler’s diary details the origins of 23XI Racing

The inside story of 23XI Racing can be found in Mike Wheeler’s diary.

Yes, an actual diary. Wheeler began keeping one when the team that would be co-founded by Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan began to form. And that was months before it was even publicly announced, and Wheeler credits Bootie Barker with the idea of keeping documentation of what was happening.

“Basically, I was at (Leavine Family Racing) with Toyota, they were shutting down with COVID, the main sponsor was leaving, so I needed a job and I knew we had a race team that needed a job,” Wheeler said. “With that, Toyota wanted to keep racing, and Denny became involved, and MJ (Jordan) came on board, so it was kind of an easy transition. But during that process, Bootie goes, ‘If this comes true, you should write this down in a diary,’ and at that point, I went back to old text messages and email chains of certain dates to watch it come true.”

It would be September of 2020 when the team was officially announced. Wheeler recalls the champagne being popped and a dinner. The initial race shop was in Mooresville, N.C., at the shuttered Germain Racing team, but the move-in date was delayed. It didn’t happen until December.

“I actually wrote down when we ran the credit cards dry,” Wheeler said. “They got shut down, and we actually couldn’t buy anything for about 24 hours until we paid some bills. It was amazing; you couldn’t get credit because you were a new company with no past history, and all those things about being a young person were true for a young company.

“It was amazing to look back.”

Being unable to get into the building on time created another entry in the diary. Wheeler had the team come to his two-car garage at his home to begin working. Not that they could do much with no race cars to touch.

Wheeler watches qualifying for the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in 2021. Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

“I remember three to four engineers showed up, as well as the car chief, and we did opening day as far as getting software on the computers and getting email addresses,” Wheeler said. “We changed from Gmail addresses to actually having a 23XI Racing account, which is always kind of funny looking back at it, how much that changed. I had a picture of opening day, and I sent it to Denny, and he said, ‘Make sure you save that for when you’re on the front row at Daytona.’

“We ended up qualifying fourth, so it never really got sent out, but we still have that picture, and it’s kind of a small memory of what this place started as.”

The diary was brought back out last year as 23XI Racing celebrated its five-year anniversary. Wheeler and some of the other original team members – he believes there are about 12 of them still left – went through it and laughed at some of the ups and downs a new team went through.

The organization quickly grew after its first year. Now a three-car operation, 23XI Racing has two crown jewel victories on its resume with Indianapolis and Daytona, and has won four of the first seven races to start the 2026 season.

CLICK HERE to listen to the full conversation with Wheeler, or look for The Racing Writer’s Podcast on any major podcast platform.