Denny Hamlin calls out NASCAR's 'crazy' charter model

Denny Hamlin has been vocal in his frustration with where negotiations stand between race teams and NASCAR on a new charter agreement.

The current agreement ends on Dec. 31, and as of now, it doesn’t appear that much progress is being made on a deal. At the center of negotiations, race teams’ fight to secure permanent charters. Under the current model, charters are not permanent franchises like the setup in other professional sporting leagues. Team can lose their charters due to poor performance on the racetrack or failing to field their cars week in and week out. As a result, most race teams lose money on a yearly basis. Race teams argue that by not having permanent charters, it makes it more difficult to attract outside investors and invest in their operations.

Hamlin said on his “Actions Detrimental” podcast this week that the current charter model is “crazy,” drawing a comparison to renting and owning a house. Simply put, if you’ve invested money into owning a team, you should be able to own it forever.

Denny Hamlin growingly vocal about securing permanent charters

“If you rent, you’re gonna be more apprehensive to invest,” Hamlin said. “If you own the house, you’re more likely to invest in it because it is a long-term asset that will be worth something in the long run. That is what we’re asking for is let us own these things. I paid for it. Why do I have to go through these charter negotiations every seven, five years whatever it might be and then I have to fight to keep what I’ve already paid for. That doesn’t make any sense to me.

“So, when I say permanent charters don’t cost anything, it doesn’t cost them one thing. All they have to say is OK, thank you Hendrick, Gibbs and Penske and RCR for helping build the sport. The charters that you own, you now own them forever. I cannot take them away from you for any reason. And for 23XI, Trackhouse, Kaulig and all you guys that spent money on buying charters, you now own them forever as well. You pay for them, they’re yours. But instead, we have to fight every so many years to keep what we already bought. That is crazy.”

Denny Hamlin growing more frustrated with charter negotiations

NASCAR recently offered a new proposal in writing to race teams. Per Hamlin, the sanctioning body’s proposal didn’t reflect their discussions, in which he felt they were being heard. A frustrated Hamlin said that negotiations feel like they’re going backwards rather than forward.

“It just seems to be going backwards time after time,” Hamlin said. “The newest and latest is not very good. So, it just seems that we always take one step forward and two steps back. I just don’t know the reason for it. It was very interesting because we had one-on-one meetings with NASCAR executives. And we felt like those meetings went well and we thought we were heard. And then you get a document that doesn’t cover any of the things that we talked about and actually not cover those things, but actually starts clawing back more on their side from us. It’s certainly not a good feeling for sure.

“It’s frustrating.”