A big topic of discussion on this week’s Actions Detrimental podcast was the cost of the Next Gen cars. Denny Hamlin not only revealed the absurd amount of money a racecar costs in the current era of NASCAR, but he also shared his concerns about the rising costs from single-source manufacturers/suppliers.
Advertisement
Hamlin’s concern was mainly from a place of not having control over the price. He argued that while the market forces are what they are; it is the seller who has the upper hand on the price of the parts, and while the price can float or go down in theory, it has only gone up.
And for this, the veteran driver had an interesting solution.
Denny Hamlin has a couple of solutions for all teams in NASCAR
In order for the teams in NASCAR to have more of a say with the price of the Next Gen parts, in order to combat it, Denny Hamlin proposed a couple of solutions. “If you look at the facilities that teams have such as Joe Gibbs Racing, Hendrick Motorsports, Stewart-Haas, Richard Childress Racing, all these big four car teams; they have all the same equipment to build. They could build the Next Gen car,” he described.
“We could build the Next Gen car in-house.”
Hamlin also suggested that teams can build their own designated and specific parts as he explained, “You could have Joe Gibbs Racing build the clips. Hendrick Motorsports builds all the deck lids, the hoods.” But with that said, Hamlin was pretty hopeless about any of these suggestions floating in the real world.
But just how expensive is the Next Gen car, anyway?
Hamlin reveals, the Next Gen car costs as much as a Lamborghini
When the Next Gen era began at the start of 2022, the cost of a racecar including everything was around $225,000 as per Hamlin. But now, that number has gone way, way up. “The Next Gen car, all in with the parts, pieces, all the other stuff you have to purchase to actually make it roll and a driver sit in it, is probably around $350,000,” he revealed. “We’re racing Lambos out there.”
In fact, it’s so expensive Hamlin claimed that at the end of the race in Talladega, when the big wreck unfolded, he was hoping his 23XI Racing cars were spared by it. Why? “Because it is such a big cost. Every wreck is,” he said.
As a result of all of this, Hamlin revealed the crash budgets on teams have gone up, which has raised their cost as team owners significantly. Now this situation isn’t out of hand by any means and surely solutions will come out either from NASCAR or from the teams, but this situation is perhaps a bit funny.
The Next Gen car was brought in to minimize the cost and save money, but that isn’t happening, and hence, owners like Denny Hamlin are demanding for a new business model.
