Denny Hamlin was featured on the most recent episode of the Dale Jr Download. In this interview, Hamlin expanded upon the most recent charter negotiations update from Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic. Hamlin warned NASCAR sternly if a deal is not reached and charters are taken away. What did Hamlin have to say?
Read Also:
Dale Earhardt Jr. walked through the entire The Athletic article on his podcast, and Denny Hamlin joined to expand upon some of the juicier details. More specifically, Hamlin expanded upon a comment that fellow 23XI Racing co-owner Curtis Polk made, suggesting that teams could choose to skip races if charters were taken away. Hamlin doubled down on this when talking with Earnhardt Jr.
It would be ignorant of fans to say ‘well that’s great, no Charters’. Then [If charters were taken away], we just wouldn’t show up when we don’t need to. The Clash, we won’t show up at that. The All-Star Race, wouldn’t show up at that. Maybe there’s some races that pay less. We just won’t show up to those. It’s just not financially good.
Denny Hamlin
Without a charter, race teams lose out on a large chunk of the purse money guaranteed to chartered teams, but, the lack of a charter also means teams don’t have to show up at every race for fear of losing a charter. If a race means taking a financial hit for teams to show up to, they have no financial incentive to show up.
Look at the Daytona 500 as an example, which has more than 40 entries showing up every year. This race is easily the largest purse of any NASCAR race in the calendar year, meaning teams have more of a financial incentive to show up. The rest of the races don’t bring in nearly the purse money, so open teams don’t always go to those races.
If this were to happen, this would be a big hit to NASCAR due to decreased entry lists and big stars potentially not showing up. However, is this a real threat, or is it just smoke and mirrors?
Hamlin certainly makes a sobering threat to NASCAR, and it’s the best threat the teams can give. Given that NASCAR owns most of the assets including tracks, the overall brand, and the TV deal, the best tool for leverage the teams have is taking their services away. However, by Hamlin’s own admission, not every team is on board with this.
I’m sure there there’ll be owners not like that. I’m saying this publicly, but, I’ve just reached the point of frustration that it’s just boiling over.
Denny Hamlin
If bigger teams use this nuclear option, smaller teams may see this as an opportunity. If multiple big teams bow out of a race, there’s potential for a smaller team to not only compete for a win, but also to nab sponsorship under the sales pitch of, “They won’t show up, but we will.”
Then again, the race teams seem to be standing together, at least for now. Curtin Polk told Gluck and Bianchi that the teams will not sign a charter agreement unless all teams have to agree to the same terms.
It’s also worth noting that both sides expect a deal to get done eventually. As big as this threat is, it doesn’t mean anything if a fair deal is reached.
NASCAR and the teams continue to sing wildly different tunes on the state of charters in NASCAR. Time will tell when a deal gets done.
