Here’s Why FedEx Didn’t Leave Denny Hamlin High and Dry

Last year, there was a brief period during which clouds of uncertainty were forming over the future of Denny Hamlin at Joe Gibbs Racing. It seemed that, just like his former teammate Kyle Busch, whose departure from JGR was incited primarily because of sponsorship reasons, Hamlin too would be following in his footsteps.

After all, the NASCAR future of Hamlin’s primary sponsor for years, FedEx, wasn’t looking too secure considering the multi-billion dollar company has been progressively pulling out from the sport in an effort to cut down its costs. But it never led to FedEx completely pulling the plug on their NASCAR program.

One reason could be the fact that just as FedEx has helped JGR over the years with the all-important sponsorship money, JGR as an organization has also helped FedEx. The organization founded by Coach Gibbs has helped FedEx sign crucial B2B deals with the other sponsors of the NASCAR organization.

“It would have been easy for a brand like FedEx to make a full exit as they restructure business priorities – they’ve had a great run in NASCAR,” Rick Cuellar, VP/Commercial at the Right Formula sports marketing agency. said as per Sports Business Journal.

“(But) when you factor in the relationships and business solutions developed over the life of the partnership, you get compelling reasons to find ways to keep them involved.”

FedEx’s involvement with Denny Hamlin in 2024 would be the same as 2023

Continuing on their cost-cutting measures for 2024, to cut down $4 billion in costs by 2025, FedEx’s involvement with Denny Hamlin in the coming season could turn out to be the same as it was in 2023. In the last season, FedEx sponsored 13 out of 38 races for Hamlin, which might seem acceptable considering the new norm in NASCAR of different sponsors making up the paint schemes for the seasons.

But one look at the 2022 season for the #11 team and the whole picture becomes pretty concerning. Because in the 2022 season, FedEx sponsored over 80% of the races, or 31 out of 38 to be precise. And it is expected that in 2024, the number of times fans see the FedEx paint scheme on Denny Hamlin’s #11 Toyota Camry won’t be all that different from 2023.

But keeping in mind the company’s cost-cutting measures and the fact that the contract extension last season was only a one-year deal, things could get tricky once again in the coming season, if not from the Denny Hamlin-JGR front, then perhaps from the Denny Hamlin-FedEx front.