Dale Earnhardt Jr. calls BS on Denny Hamlin on opposition of 'Run What You Brung' All-Star Race

Dale Earnhardt Jr. said that Denny Hamlin is “overstating” how much it would cost teams to take part in NASCAR‘s proposed “Run What You Brung” rules package for next month’s All-Star Racce at North Wilkesboro Speedway. Hamlin estimated on Monday’s “Actions Detrimental” podcast that it would cost teams $2 million.

“That’s overstating it,” Earnhardt said on Tuesday’s Dale Jr. Download. “I think it would cost the teams some money, for sure, but not $2 million. I just don’t believe it. I think that is just an excuse to say, ‘Yeah, this is why we didn’t want to do it.’ And I think he’s inflating the cost to make a point. Will it cost money? He’s already mad about the damn purse being $1 million for 30 years. He said that over and over. That’s fine, that’s a great argument. I think that race should pay $3 million to the winner. The purse is absolutely a reasonable argument; he’s got a valid point.”

NASCAR proposed the package to teams in an effort to help fix the short track racing product. In the Next Gen era, performance at historic tracks such as Martinsville and Bristol hasn’t been up to standard. But the teams rejected the proposal. Hamlin said it came down to money.

Denny Hamlin explains why teams rejected ‘Run What You Brung’ proposal

“We’ve been very transparent in the fact that this car cost $300,000,” Hamlin said. “Do the math real quick. If I put my three cars on the racetrack and just to build this wild, illegal car, I’m going to destroy it and now I lose one more car out of my fleet. I only get seven cars per door number. So, that’s three cars that are wiped out of my fleet that I’m not going to get a replacement for because I’m not going to get a replacement car if the car has damage to it if you wreck it. You have to show NASCAR that it’s wrecked, bent or whatever and you need another chassis. I can’t afford to lose that out of my rotation.

“We used to have 14 cars, now we’re down to seven. The whole cost-cutting thing was to shorten up how many cars we have in our stable. Can you ask for another chassis? Sure, but I’m gonna spend $1 million just on parts and pieces. We haven’t even developed anything yet. So, just in parts and pieces to replace all this sh*t we’re gonna modify, we’re gonna spend a sh*t ton of money. And it only pays $1 million to win. It’s paid $1 million to win for 30 years. It’s not that cool anymore. Even if one of my cars won, I don’t see this as even remotely breakeven proposition.”

Mike Forde, NASCAR managing director of racing communications, said on Wednesday’s “Hauler Talk” podcast that Hamlin’s estimation is incorrect: “Denny talked about how this would potentially cost $2 million if we went ahead and did this. I think his math was off by about $2 million. But actually, it could cost $0 or potentially save teams money, believe it or not.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr. believes All-Star Race is great opportunity to try new things

Earnhardt still places a lot of value in the All-Star Race. He said it would have been a great opportunity to test out some ideas.

“I thought it would have been kind of neat to open the rules up a little bit. And that was Denny’s point that I really liked,” Earnhardt said. “I’m giving him a hard time because I think he’s overstating how much cost this would be for the teams, but one of his ideas was why didn’t NASCAR just say, ‘This particular part of the car is free game. This particular part of the car is free game.’ That might have been a way and maybe they did, but Denny was saying, ‘You know, if they would have come to us and said, we’re going to open this part of the car up a little bit,’ that might have been something they entertained.

“… The All-Star Race is an awesome opportunity for us to try to learn something. And for NASCAR, for the teams, everyone not to look at it as a place to discover and give a few ideas some real testing, that’s what this race should be about. There’s no points on the line. I’m not enough of an engineer, I’m not a crew chief, not smart enough to know enough about this car to sit here in front of you and say, ‘Well, they should try this.’ But there are some people that do have some great ideas. And I think that this is the race to throw some of that stuff out on the racetrack.”