Denny Hamlin, who is both an active driver for Joe Gibbs Racing and Cup Series team co-owner for 23XI Racing says NASCAR’s recent claim that a new revenue sharing agreement with teams is ‘very close’ is just positive messaging more than anything else.
Speaking at the CAA World Congress of Sports in Los Angeles on Wednesday, the point of optimism was expressed by league chief operating officer Steve O’Donnell, who also said that an agreement would likely leave both sides feeling like they conceded too much.
“The great news on our end too is you look at, I’ve been at NASCAR a long time, and ownership in NASCAR was always that traditional, grew up through the sport, had been an owner for 30 years,” O’Donnell said. “That is completely changing and you’re seeing interest from all over to come into NASCAR. So it’s a big opportunity for us. We’ve got to get that right.
“There’s some things that’ll challenge us a little bit and push us, but … ownership that is maybe not traditional to the sport is good for us. We’re going to have new personalities, new businesses that’ll come into the sport. So, I think at the end of the day, we’ve talked about everybody will be a little ticked off once we get to the deal, but that’ll mean it’s the right way to go.”
Hamlin, speaking to reporters on Saturday at Talladega Superspeedway, says the four main asks from the teams have not yet been addressed.
“The four key elements that I haven’t seen NASCAR brought up and what our ask has been, they have not addressed those or haven’t conceded to those,” Hamlin said. “I think that it’s positive messaging more than it’s actually real.”
What are those asks?
“I would have to let the (team negotiating committee) answer that but it’s been the same four for a year and a half,” he said. “They can tell you exactly what those are.”
Negotiating on behalf of the collective teams, an entity called the Race Team Alliance, is a sub-committee comprised of Hendrick Motorsports vice chairman Jeff Gordon, RFK Racing president Steve Newmark, Joe Gibbs Racing vice president Dave Alpern and Jordan Brand representative Curtis Polk.
Brad Keselowski, who co-owns RFK Racing with Jack Roush and the Fenway Sports Group, also said he hasn’t heard anything to make him believe a deal is close.
“There’s nothing I’m aware of but maybe there’s something behind the scenes that I’m not aware of,” Keselowski said.
An agreement must be struck before the 2025 season can commence in February.
How the NASCAR charter system works
The short version of the negotiations are that the teams currently receive around 35-to-39 percent of broadcast revenue when combining the guaranteed 25 percent plus purse monies issued over the course of the season.
Teams are seeking closer to half the broadcast revenue, where NASCAR was last reportedly offering somewhere around 42 percent. The phrase somewhere around is an intentional distinction because one of the sticking points in the negotiations is that the two sides use different accounting means and are not even agreeing on what the current payout percentage is.
NASCAR secured a $7.7 billion broadcast rights agreement over the winter with FOX, NBC, Amazon, Turner Sports and The CW.
There are some other negotiating hurdles to overcome too in terms of gambling revenue, a waterfall that is about to burst across the entire sports industry, and how much time teams pay to spend to use the new NASCAR productions facility in North Carolina.
The latter is complicated because teams started building their own in-house production facilities once the shops were no longer used to build entire cars with the introduction of kit cars constructed using single source supplied components.
Competition matters bleed over into these conversations, ranging from the continued safety improvements of the current generation car, to how money will be spent over how to improve how it races on short tracks and road courses.
The amount of practice is a line item that will need to be addressed. Teams want the charter system, which is at its core a franchise model, to be made permanent. The teams have its own media arm, Racing America, which overlaps with NASCAR.com.
Sportsnaut story from Wednesday