Man, talk about awkward.
Or so you’d think.
In a previous generation, Oakland Raiders (remember them?) owner Al Davis sued the NFL during his efforts to move his team to Los Angeles, and over time, it made for some uncomfortable visuals — particularly Commissioner Pete Rozelle handing the Lombardi Trophy to Davis after a Raiders Super Bowl victory.
Well, it’s hard to match the high profile of the NFL and a Super Bowl champ, but throw in the presence of Michael Jordan, and you ramp up the size of the headlines. Meanwhile …
“I’m doing business as usual,” Denny Hamlin said by phone this week.
Lately, the “usual” has included updated courtroom rulings involving a NASCAR team — 23XI Racing — Hamlin co-owns with Jordan and and Jordan’s business partner, Curtis Polk. Their team, along with Front Row Motorsports, is suing NASCAR, claiming antitrust violations, in an attempt to get a better deal than NASCAR is currently providing the league’s 36 franchises, which are known as “charters” in the racing game.
It used to be, if an owner or driver gave so much as a sideways look toward NASCAR leadership, they might’ve soon found a hurdle in their path toward potential checkers (Pit Road speeding penalty?) or maybe even on their way to the starting grid (issues in the inspection bay?).
Allegedly, of course.
Hamlin remains a championship-contending driver for Joe Gibbs Racing while also co-owning the three-car operation at 23XI. He’d be a target-rich environment if the referees were so inclined, but remember, “business as usual.”
“We interacted a lot with each other over the last couple months of the (2024) season, and everything was kosher and fine,” he said of his NASCAR relationship. “And I think the courts obviously expect us to both be very professional through this … this whole entire process.
“I do feel that way, and I have no doubts we’ll be treated fairly on the racetrack.”
From cockpit to the trenches
Hamlin’s season — as well as that for all others — begins Sunday night with the new-look Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, N.C. After that, it’s a two-week break (it’s best to avoid Super Bowl weekend, you know) before Daytona and the start of his 21st Cup Series season, which figures to be unlike all before it.
At 44, Hamlin says he’s better prepared for these things. A younger Denny Hamlin might not have been ready for the dual duty of driver-owner, much less the additional additional role of plaintiff.
“I doubt it. For sure, it needed to come kind of when it did,” he said.
How much smarter is he at 44 than 24 or even 34?
“I’m certainly learning about it and still continuing to learn about it,” he said of his increased demands. “It’s something that sparked my interest early in my career. I’ve always been a person who talked about the bigger picture of the sport itself and how we can make it better, because all I want to do is make it better.
“I want to see this sport being the best that it possibly could be. But as I’ve actually gotten in the trenches and been in meetings, I start to kind of understand there’s a whole lot more.”
The Next Gen car as a de facto cost capper?
The bottom line with this lawsuit is just that: the bottom line. As in money. Surprised? Of course not.
The Cup Series race teams were negotiating for a bigger cut of NASCAR’s multi-billion-dollar media rights deal. For years, the cut has been 65% for the tracks, 25% to race purses, 10% to the sanctioning body. That 25% isn’t enough for teams who prefer to run in the lead pack, so extra funds are brought in through a team’s deal with the likes of Anheuser-Busch, NAPA, Bass Pro, etc.
The new media deal, running this year through 2031, brings a 40% increase for the sport, which presumably means everyone in that 65-25-10 triad will see their pie slice increase by 40%. When NASCAR issued a hard deadline late last season to either sign on or sign out, all teams except 23XI and Front Row signed. And the lawsuit rolls along.
So, an obvious question for Hamlin: Even with a better financial deal, wouldn’t individual teams continue scrambling for additional funds with a goal of finding additional horsepower? Wouldn’t the age-old arms race continue as teams find ways to spend everything they get?
“I think motorsports in general is an arms race,” Hamlin said. “You still have your top teams and will always have top teams. And those that want to run their businesses a little bit differently. We have it in other sports as well.”
Hamlin suggests spending among teams would police itself due to some hardware basics.
“The difference is that eventually you’re going to get diminishing returns with this Next Gen car,” he said. “You can only develop so much, because this is a purpose-built car, parts come off the shelf, you have to use them, and you can’t alter them.
“I think the cost cap is almost built into itself now, versus other sports.”
Sounds reasonable, but the biggest cost driver is always personnel. As long as Team B hires two additional aero engineers because Team A added two last month, costs will keep rising.
On paper, the easiest way to financial sanity for race teams would be an overall spending cap. If you think it’s tough finding fractions of inches in the tech garage, imagine policing a spending cap.
— Email Ken Willis at [email protected]
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: NASCAR awkwardness? Plaintiff Denny Hamlin says no as Daytona 500 nears
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