NASCAR Teams Reportedly Shot Down Innovative Idea for All-Star Race
What’s Happening? In a recent podcast, mechanic and writer Bozi Tatarevic revealed he had heard a rumor that NASCAR Cup Series…
In the latest episode of NASCAR’s in-house podcast, Hauler Talk, Mike Forde, NASCAR’s Managing Director of Racing Communications, called out Denny Hamlin’s recent comments that a NASCAR All-Star Race format proposed by NASCAR would have cost teams $2 million.
During his latest episode of Actions Detrimental, 23XI Racing co-owner Denny Hamlin discussed his perspective on the financial side of NASCAR’s proposed “Run What Ya Brung” NASCAR All-Star Race format. The three-time Daytona 500 Champion explained that costs could reach $2 million, far from the minuscule $1 million prize for winning the race.
This proposed format would have allowed teams to race in the All-Star event with a car ready to race however they wanted it, as long as it passed safety inspection. This proposal would have made the All-Star Race a must-watch and could have led to a new breakthrough in fixing the NASCAR Next Gen car’s poor short-track racing product. However, team owners shut down this idea.
Following Monday’s episode, Denny’s estimation was the talk of the NASCAR community. Now, a NASCAR employee is claiming that this number is not entirely accurate. Mike Forde, NASCAR’s managing director of racing communications and a co-host of the sport’s in-house podcast, Hauler Talk, promoted their latest episode by posting it on X.
This preview of the subjects at hand did not go past Hamlin, who responded, “Oh it cost us nothing to run a raceteam now. Whew, this business is easier than I thought. BTW, Great stats on Sunday!” While this may seem ridiculous, Forde did, in fact, claim, “I think his math was off by about $2 million, but what it actually could cost is zero dollars or potentially save teams money.”
What’s Happening? In a recent podcast, mechanic and writer Bozi Tatarevic revealed he had heard a rumor that NASCAR Cup Series…
Hamlin claimed in his podcast that his three-car team would spend roughly $300,000 as they would “destroy” each car for this one exhibition race. That, combined with another million in the cost of making the parts and pieces for their car, is how he came to his rough figure of $2 million.
On Hauler Talk, Mike Forde states that teams were not allowed to modify their chassis, but they could not modify or even build any parts; rather, the proposed format was more like combining different pieces of a Lego set. Teams were still limited to the strict “single-source part” rules of the Next Gen Car.
“You cannot build new parts,” Forde said. “You can’t create any new parts. Everything still had to be single-sourced. But there was a list of things that we were going to allow teams to do.”
Forde listed a few of NASCAR’s proposed rules:
*NASCAR was going to enforce total and right-side weight rules
However, Forde claims that utilizing what he referred to as “hand-me-down” body panels could have saved NASCAR teams money in this race.
“Why I said teams actually probably could have saved money on this idea is if you didn’t want to do anything, if you wanted to not come up with any idea. . . What you could have done is use body panels that probably aren’t race-ready for a Talladega or a Coke 600, but probably too good for a show car, and use it for the All-Star Race.” — Mike Forde
However, after saying this, Forde also stated, “They probably wouldn’t do that, but they could if they wanted to.”
What’s Happening? On this week’s episode of Actions Detrimental, 23XI Racing co-owner Denny Hamlin discussed the financial burden teams would have…
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An email sent by former Joe Gibbs Racing Competition Director Chris Gabehart claims that resentment towards him from members of the Gibbs family made him feel that the future of JGR was a “no-win situation.”
Last week, Joe Gibbs Racing filed a lawsuit against former Crew Chief and Competition Director Chris Gabehart, claiming that the former Daytona 500 Champion had schemed to steal vital information from the team in the lead-up to his departure from JGR for Spire Motorsports.
Not even ten days since JGR filed this lawsuit, the two have continued to trade barbs and accusations back and forth through the court system.
In a filing earlier this week, Gabehart accused the team of misleading him in his duties as competition director in 2025, and specifically calling out JGR’s No. 54 team, driven by Joe Gibbs’ grandson Ty, alleging that the team received “differential treatment.”
Friday, an email sent to JGR CFO Tim Carmichael by Gabehart in November 2025 (released as part of this lawsuit) showed just how uncomfortable he had grown working at JGR during his tenure as Competition Director, with the industry veteran stating that Ty Gibbs and his mother, Heather, held “resentment” towards Gabehart.
The now former Competition Director went on to say in this email that, as the two were the future bosses of JGR, “I’m afraid that leaves me in a no-win situation.”
These exchanges, including the claims made by Gibbs in his filing earlier this week, have swept fans into a whirlwind of sorts, with the two sides even meeting in court today for the lawsuit’s first official hearing.
Of course, Gabehart’s claims about the state of operations at JGR pale in comparison to the accusations made by the Gibbs team in their initial lawsuit.
On Tuesday, the team even added Spire Motorsports, Gabehart’s current employer, as a co-defendant, and requested the court force Gabehart to sit out at least the 18 months since his termination before doing any work in NASCAR similar to his role at JGR.
The team is also asking that any information procured by Spire from Gabehart be returned, though the CEO of TWG Motorsports, which owns Spire, Dan Towriss, told Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports Friday that “Spire doesn’t want data from Joe Gibbs Racing. It doesn’t have data from Joe Gibbs Racing. No point in time has it had data from Joe Gibbs Racing.”
Alongside Spire, Gabehart adamantly denied any wrongdoing in a post to social media last week, saying, “I feel compelled to speak out today and forcefully and emphatically deny these frivolous and retaliatory claims.”
What’s Happening? Former Joe Gibbs Racing Crew Chief and Competition Director Chris Gabehart has filed a new response slamming JGR as…
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A few years ago, I looked at the racetracks preserved on iRacing that no longer exist in real life. After digging deeper, I expected to find one common reason they all shut down. Instead, each one tells a completely different story — from booming cities and land value spikes to ownership changes, broken promises, and even mysteries that still don’t have clear answers.
Some tracks were pushed out by urban development. Some lost the one person fighting to keep them alive. Others faded due to declining support — or were never meant to last forever in the first place. No two closures are the same, and that’s what makes this deep dive so fascinating.
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NASCAR’s documentary series “Full Speed,” which used to live on Netflix, had its first two seasons look back at entire playoff runs. But now, NASCAR is shifting the series to Amazon Prime Video for its third season, and the scope of the series will also shift to new storylines.
Dropping on March 5, the new season is aimed at zooming in on one event: the 2026 Daytona 500. Instead of a multi-episode run, this time it’s a single-episode documentary that goes all in on one race.
The film will follow big names and storylines from the Daytona 500. It will spotlight the winner, Tyler Reddick, and lean into driver storylines around the weekend. That includes Kyle Busch trying to get his groove back, Brad Keselowski clawing his way back after a broken leg, Connor Zilisch being pushed as the next big thing, and Noah Gragson bringing chaos wherever he goes.
Some fans might question the move away from Netflix, especially after Season 1 pulled in 3.4 million views in the first half of 2024. Then in 2025, the docuseries clocked 900,000 views after its early May release and added another 200,000 between July and December.
But with Prime Video stepping in as one of NASCAR’s broadcast partners, moving the series lines up with a bigger play to keep content under one roof.
Amazon has already dipped into NASCAR storytelling with projects like the docuseries Earnhardt about Dale Earnhardt. Moving Full Speed to Prime follows the same playbook. And for fans who still haven’t seen previous installments, the first two seasons are also heading over to Prime Video.
However, Reddit fans are divided in their opinions about the decision. Some fans actually get why NASCAR changed the format and platform, while a chunk of fans think leaving Netflix is risky because Netflix is where casual viewers stumble into shows. Others push back, pointing out that Prime actually has a massive reach in the U.S. and strong marketing muscle.
While one fan commented, “Makes sense. I highly doubt they were gonna make a new season around a points format they don’t use anymore,” another stated, “Idk the semantics and numbers and everything behind it so I’m probably talking out of my ass….buttttttt….at what point does nascar take the less money for the exposure. You need to be on Netflix, people watch Netflix. People don’t watch Amazon video as much. Who’s gonna watch this that isn’t a nascar fan already. You have a higher chance of getting people lost on Netflix than lost on Amazon Prime Video.”
One fan commented on the news, saying, “100%. I have Amazon Prime and Netflix. AP is a train wreck for videos especially now with their ad program with videos. I steer clear because Netflix is still ad free.” Another fan supported NASCAR’s move, saying, “Prime actually has slightly more subscribers in the USA and in my opinion is better at marketing. It’s a lateral move.”
Another backed NASCAR, stating, “Most NASCAR fans will find some way to be on prime in the month of June. I think they are counting on people watching it then if they have not already seen it. Similar to the Earnhardt documentary that dropped in June last year.”
Another fan comment implied something less glamorous yet very real, pointing out that the Netflix seasons didn’t see a surge in viewership. The first season did okay, but later numbers dipped: “Netflix didn’t seem to work that well for the 2 playoff seasons.”
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