CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Den­ny Ham­lin is start­ing his own race car team in part­ner­ship with Char­lotte Hor­nets own­er Michael Jor­dan and Bub­ba Wal­lace as the driver.

Ham­lin, a three-time Day­tona 500 win­ner and top con­tender for this year’s Cup title, made the announce­ment on social media. The team will be a sin­gle-car Toy­ota entry aligned with Joe Gibbs Racing.

“Eleven years ago I met Michael Jor­dan at a then-Char­lotte Bob­cats game and we became fast friends,” Ham­lin wrote. “Not long after, I joined Jor­dan Brand as their first NASCAR ath­lete. Our friend­ship has grown over the years and now we are ready to take it to the next level.

“Decid­ing on the dri­ver was easy — it had to be Bub­ba Wallace.”

Ham­lin said addi­tion­al details would be forth­com­ing. Wal­lace is the only Black dri­ver at NASCAR’s top level.

There’s been spec­u­la­tion for months that Ham­lin was orga­niz­ing some sort of own­er­ship group as he expects NASCAR’s busi­ness mod­el to become more favor­able for team own­ers when the “Next Gen” car is released in 2022. NASCAR rules pro­hib­it a cur­rent dri­ver from own­ing a team and dri­ving for anoth­er, but Ham­lin works around the pol­i­cy with Jor­dan as the pri­ma­ry owner.

Jor­dan became a par­tial own­er of the Bob­cats in 2006 and bought the team out­right in 2010, restor­ing the fran­chise to its orig­i­nal Hor­nets name. Ham­lin has been a long­time sea­son-tick­et hold­er with court­side seats along the vis­i­tors’ bench.

Jor­dan has twice trav­eled to the NASCAR sea­son finale to Ham­lin race for the cham­pi­onship. Ham­lin, who’s 39, is still seek­ing his first title.

Wal­lace, who has cob­bled togeth­er about $18 mil­lion in spon­sor­ship deals since he made social equal­i­ty his plat­form, already said he’d leave Richard Pet­ty Motor­sports at the end of the season.

“This is a unique, once-in-a-life­time oppor­tu­ni­ty that I believe is a great fit for me at this point in my career,” Wal­lace wrote in a social media post coor­di­nat­ed with Hamlin’s.

“I am grate­ful and hum­bled that they believe in me and I’m super pumped to begin this adven­ture with them.”