Denny Hamlin explains what needs to happen before 23XI Racing will purchase third charter

Four NASCAR Cup Series charters are up for grabs after Stewart-Haas Racing announced last week that it will shut down operations following the 2024 season. Among the teams rumored to be in the running to secure one of those charters is 23XI Racing, but Denny Hamlin is saying slow your roll on that for now.

Hamlin, speaking on his “Actions Detrimental” podcast, said that 23XI’s main focus is coming to terms with NASCAR on a new charter agreement. As of now, the current agreement will run out at the turn of the new year.

“23XI is interested in getting a charter deal done,” Hamlin said. “We don’t — right now, on Jan. 1, 2025, we don’t even have a charter. So, you can’t buy or sell something that doesn’t exist in our eyes. We have two charters till the end of this year and until we get a charter agreement done, that’s all we have. I mean, I didn’t build that facility to stay a two-car team, but it always has to make financial sense. I’m not going to put myself in a position to where I’m having to shell out millions and millions of dollars every year just to keep this thing going. I will not do that personally.

“So, it has to make financial sense and the charter agreement needs to be better than it is certainly before I invest any more money in it.”

Denny Hamlin on charter negotiations: ‘There’s still a ton of work to do’

At the heart of ongoing charter 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.

Speaking with the media ahead of Sunday’s Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway, Hamlin admitted “there’s still a ton of work to do” on the new charter agreement. He added to that on his podcast, saying there hasn’t been much progress since this past December.

“Not from what I’ve seen,” Hamlin said. “We got something back last week, but I didn’t see anything there that was much different than what we saw in December.”