An eagle eye in the NASCAR news this week may recognize that Denny Hamlin has once again spoken up about charters, this time joining the Kenny Wallace Show and declaring that the deals NASCAR gives the teams keep “Getting worse.” However, other stories from this week show that the picture might not be as black and white as Hamlin may claim. What’s the full story?
Hamlin told Wallace that every charter deal across the table continues worsening. He further threatens that teams would choose not to compete in certain races if a charter deal is not reached and charters are removed.
There’s been no negotiation, Kenny. It’s been every response, every proposal they send back to us is worse than the previous. That is factual. It keeps getting worse, so when you ask me where are we at today, we are worse off than we were two years ago. And, we are six months, eight months away from the Daytona 500 and there not being any Charters. Why the race fans should care about that, is the reason Joe Gibbs Racing and Hendrick Motorsports show up every week is because there’s a charter deal. We get a payment to show up every single week. If there is no Charter deal, we will pick and choose what the best paying races are, and we’ll go run those races.
Denny Hamlin
The idea of teams refusing to show up to races is not new. In May, Hamlin himseld said that teams will stop showing up to lower-paying races if charters are taken away.
Hamlin also reiterated that he wanted the teams to work together with NASCAR and that the teams wanted more money. This is nothing new, but it does highlight that negotiations continue between NASCAR and the teams.
It’s also worth noting that Hamlin is saying after 23XI Racing constructed Airspeed, a $multi-million facility. Granted, 23XI is only one team, and their specific situation may not speak for the rest of the sport. Just because 23XI can do this doesn’t mean the rest of the sport is healthy, but it’s still a strange paradox to see Hamlin saying a team needs more money while also investing a ton of money into something like this.
It doesn’t seem the teams are totally aligned on whether the current deals are good or bad, either. Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic reported in late April that over half of the 15 chartered teams would take the deal on the table at the time as-is. Front Row Motorsports General Manager Jerry Freeze said to the media after signing Noah Gragson, “We’re all pretty confident that agreement is going to be made,” he also said there has been “good progress” based on what he’s heard.
Now, Hamlin and the teams are ultimately asking for more money, but does NASCAR have enough to give them more? S&P Global reports that SMI (Speedway Motorsports Inc.) will have to cut back on “Deleveraging efforts” (i.e., reducing debt) due to giving more money to the race teams. SMI will not be able to pay off its debt as quickly as it used to because teams are getting more money, and promoters are getting less in the next charter deal.
Adam Stern reports that NASCAR has recently had some layoffs as part of a general restructuring of the organization. While it’s unclear if NASCAR’s downsizing is due to more getting less from the charter agreement, it shows that both NASCAR and SMI are cutting costs. SMI’s cut is directly related to the charter negotiations.
Is NASCAR really the greedy corporation that Hamlin claims it is? This would suggest that maybe it’s a little more complicated than that.
This doesn’t mean Hamlin is wrong or that his perspective isn’t valid. However, it doesn’t tell the whole story, and this negotiation has multiple factors. Only time will tell where it goes and how it affects NASCAR down the road.
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