As part of a larger conversation about the state of the ongoing charter negotiations, Denny Hamlin says no one from NASCAR leadership stopped by to personally present Tyler Reddick his regular season championship trophy and the insinuation implied intent.
The conversation with a media scrum took place during Cup Series Playoff Media Day at the Charlotte Convention Center.
Reddick drives for Hamlin, who co-owns 23XI Racing with Michael Jordan and longtime business collaborator Curtis Polk. NASCAR issued teams a counterproposal last week, one that did not seem to make progress with a majority of race teams.
Polk pinned the following message to the back of his shirt on Sunday prior to the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, referencing an anti-disparagement clause baked into the proposal.
What made Polk wear that on his shirt?
“Frustration,” Hamlin said.
Is that a threat?
“It’s the threat if you talk bad about NASCAR,” Hamlin said.
Does he think Polk’s message was received by NASCAR leadership?
“I’m not sure,” Hamlin said. “You know, I was certainly pretty disappointed to not see anyone from NASCAR present Tyler his trophy. That was a little disappointing.”
Did Hamlin feel like it was personal?
“I don’t know. It’s the first I’ve seen.”
It’s the first time NASCAR officials were not part of a trophy celebration and photograph, that is.
NASCAR wants to reach a deal this week with the start of the Cup Series playoffs looming on Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Beyond the distraction of it all, NASCAR also wants to begin filming and making use of footage for the second season of the Netflix Full Speed documentary.
If a deal is not reached, NASCAR cannot use the image and likenesses of the teams in material next year.
NASCAR officials, from president Steve Phelps and COO Steve O’Donnell, have suggested that a deal is close to fruition. There are some smaller teams that are more willing to accept NASCAR’s latest offers but Hamlin pushed back on the notion that a deal is close.
“Who is telling you it’s getting closer and closer,” Hamlin asked.
NASCAR.
“Well of course they want it to but the truth is that they keep going the wrong direction.”
A report came out earlier in the summer that the previous offer from NASCAR, the one before the most recent offer, was the worst yet.
“There’s probably a handful of teams that are just happy to take any deal that they can get,” Hamlin said. “And then there are others who, you know, who have some business sense that say this is unreasonable.”
Hamlin says ultimately each individual team is ultimately going to have to do what is best for themselves, even if he feels the larger group is unified. Hamlin also says he wishes other owners were as publicly vocal as he is because he hears it from them privately.
“I don’t love being the megaphone,” Hamlin said. “I wish some of these other owners who are griping to me through texts and calls would just do it publicly themselves but I think they fear pushback, you know?”
Hamlin says for a deal to get done, it is going to require one side to completely change its entire perspective, and that the negotiations are ‘stagnant’ right now.
What will it take to get a deal done?
“One side will have to wake up and be reasonable,” Hamlin said. “That’s all.”
Which side?
“Not ours,” Hamlin said.
Ultimately, Hamlin says the teams and NASCAR disagree on the value of what team owners and their drivers bring to the sport.
“I think it’s more just of a frustration over the lack of acknowledgement that the teams have built the sport; that the Hendrick and Gibbs have put superstars on the racetrack,” Hamlin said. “That is what has built the sport.
“Fans do not come to see cars going around in circles. If they would, then we would sell out ARCA races but they don’t.
“They come to sell out on Sunday to watch Chase Elliot and Kyle Larson and Kyle Busch. So, who provides them the cars? And it’s the teams who spend the money. It’s the teams who buy suites. It’s the teams who sponsor and activates on the midways. That’s the tough part. They just don’t value us.”
Hamlin says he started 23XI Racing to continue growing the sport, to build on a legacy after his driving career as has concluded, but that the two sides are just not at a place where the teams can be viable.
“NASCAR for a while has been very receptive to listening to advice and some things,” Hamlin said. “But when it comes to dollars and cents, that’s where we’re in two different ballparks.
“As a driver, I’ve put in 20 years doing this and I feel like I’ve tried to do my best to grow a social following, giving more content, things like that, trying to update the times.
“I tried to start a race team to build my legacy well beyond being a race car driver and being part of the sport, investing in Jim France, investing in NASCAR. I’m doing my part, but I certainly think, probably from their standpoint, they just see me as a thorn on their side and more than likely would be better off without me.”
If a deal is not reached by the end of the calendar year, NASCAR can no longer use the teams’ intellectual property and the teams’ cannot use NASCAR’s.
And despite the teams spending 25-to-40 million on charters over the past couple of years, NASCAR would also have the rights to revoke them, come up with a new business model for teams that choose to participate in whatever becomes of the Cup Series, although Hamlin doesn’t fully have an answer for what that would look like.
“I don’t think they can stop you from racing,” Hamlin said. “I mean, Joe and Billy’s garage can put a car together and run a race in the way our sport is formed right now.”
In this hypothetical scenario, teams that do not accept NASCAR’s offer would be free to pick and choose which races they want to enter but beyond that, the Race Team Alliance, or whichever teams do not accept the charter offer, would be free to race in another series or potentially even create its own.
In fact, it leaked that very possibility in late 2022, and that option has always been on the table if it felt NASCAR would not issue a proposal that was agreeable to them.
So for now, the only hard deadline is The Clash or maybe the Daytona 500 next February but if a deal is not reached, the end result would be the catastrophic restricting of the NASCAR Cup Series as everyone has known it.
Charter negotiations timeline
What the charter system is
Why it’s a doomsday scenario if a deal is not reached
Teams hired top antitrust lawyer against NASCAR
Jeff Gordon on why the business model needs to change
Michael Jordan says NASCAR will die without charter permanence
Denny Hamlin says teams just want break even revenue
NASCAR’s June offer to teams ‘was worst yet’
Denny Hamlin on why charters need to be permanent
Smaller teams unified with larger teams
NASCAR, teams making progress on charter deal but hurdles remain
Steve Phelps speaks to Kevin Harvick in wide ranging interview
How drivers feel about the state of the negotiations