The NASCAR charter system and the TV deal woes have been plaguing the teams and organizations for a pretty lengthy period now. Several months of discussions back and forth have finally seen some movement in how things would shape up in the future. But overall, there hasn’t been much rumbling regarding the same. Recently, veteran Cup Series driver and 23XI Racing team’s co-owner, Denny Hamlin shared his insights on the matter at hand and how things have been shaping up behind the scenes.
Advertisement
While speaking on his podcast, Hamlin stated, “I think that there’s progression being made on that. There are some things I don’t necessarily agree with. I mean, the TV media deal is likely to fall in a very general range. While we can’t get a deal done before that, I’m not sure because it’s just one part of gross revenue.”
He added, “I don’t know. It just seems like it shouldn’t have taken this long. We tried for 18 months to get this ball rolling much sooner, but we just really couldn’t get anywhere. But it seems like things are starting to move in a direction now a little bit better.”
Hamlin further stated that the deal is reaching its end and negotiations will probably continue into the next year. He mentioned that the exclusive time to renew is December 31, and if they do not renew by then, the charters will expire unless they receive an extension for a longer negotiating period.
Denny Hamlin says the charter situation might yield a “lame-duck year”
Further into the podcast, Hamlin’s co-host asked if the charters would not be permanent when they go racing next year. Hamlin replied, “Potentially, on whether or not we don’t have permanent charters now.”
The JGR driver added, “What I’m saying is that if they were to expire at the end of this year, then we might have to race next year, and then lose them the following. So it’s like a lame-duck year.” Previously, Hamlin has spoken on the subject of having permanent charters instead of the temporary ones we have now. He expressed his displeasure at investing in something that can be taken away at any moment.
Hamlin was then asked if he would receive any money from NASCAR for the charters, to which he responded, “Yeah. They would have to, they’d have those obligations, for sure. But we’d also have the obligation to come race and to get to get that.”
Lastly, Hamlin concluded that the negotiations have taken longer than necessary and expressed a hope that the framework set up to continue discussions during the offseason will hopefully lead to a resolution soon enough.
