Denny Hamlin is one of the team owners involved in the charter agreement negotiations with NASCAR. Over the course of the last year, he has increasingly made it public that the sanctioning body is out to protect only its financial interests and not help the teams survive the mounting cost of operations. He continued piling on that in the latest episode of Actions Detrimental.
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Talking about the possibility of a team’s union becoming a reality because of NASCAR’s insensitivity, Hamlin reiterated that it wasn’t his desire to see such an outcome. He hopes that the promotion just involves the teams in matters related to their collective financial future. “Nobody here is saying that, you know, that NASCAR teams need or should unionize,” he quipped.
“But it seems like there’s certainly some, we wish we had a bigger seat at the table when it comes to doing the next media deal or doing any future revenue stuff. Growing the sport. I mean, we need to lock arms better than what we’re doing.” He continued noting how NASCAR always talks about being more collaborative and never does so, choosing to do what’s best for it instead.
The dynamics between NASCAR and its teams have not changed in 75 years. Perhaps disruption will be the best way to move forward from here. Hamlin, however, understands that such seismic changes are easier said than done. While he hopes that finalization of the current charter negotiations will put them in a better spot, he doesn’t think it will be easy to change NASCAR.
Hamlin blames NASCAR for Stewart-Haas Racing’s closure
Talking about the Stewart-Haas Racing being dissolved at the end of 2024, Hamlin stated on the podcast that the team decided to call its quits because it was done screwing around with NASCAR. The financial costs of running a four-car team in the Cup Series do not make sense without viable partners. And Stewart-Haas Racing lost two of its biggest sponsors at the beginning of the season.
Hamlin contends that had the promotion given teams a fairer share of the media revenue, Gene Haas and Tony Stewart wouldn’t have been pushed to the stage of shutting down operations. “Had NASCAR’s media dollars covered what it costs to run a car, they would not be shutting down,” he lamented. “But unfortunately, we’re still under a sponsorship model that forces us to get millions and millions of dollars in sponsorship just to break even.”
