Denny Hamlin fires back at NASCAR podcast over charter agreement commentary

As the negotiations remain ongoing between NASCAR and its teams over the revenue distributions coming from a new television deal, tensions are getting high between drivers like Denny Hamlin and others commenting on the ongoing saga.

Hamlin responded pretty pointedly on Twitter to a suggestion from part-time driver Landon Cassill that there is too much bloat among Cup Series teams right now.

Speaking on the Money Lap Podcast with Parker Kligerman & Landon Cassill, Cassill said the following:

“NASCAR is not making you hire 100 engineers. NASCAR is not making you rent private jets. NASCAR is not making you spend $250k on a pit box.”

Denny Hamlin came roaring back on Twitter, defending the team side of things.

“About 8 engineers,” he wrote. “No private Jet. 13m hard cost. 5m to be competitive. We could cut some aesthetic cost however have you seen 3/4 of xfinity garage? Amazing experience that would be for our sponsors.”

The point Hamlin was making is that it costs money to field competitive teams at the Cup Series level. Now, there’s been quite a bit of debate about just how much money that is. And that’s where the hang-up with NASCAR is.

Denny Hamlin chimed in with a complete explanation after his initial replies toward Cassill and the Money Lap Podcast, too.

“Well. Lots of thoughts,” Hamlin began. “First, 18M is just for the car on the track to put on this show each and every week (NO driver) Seems as though you think it’s excessive. Well we (teams) opened our books to NASCAR to show what exactly that money was spent on and that it was not excessive. (Nas executives agreed)

“You mentioned that anything we make beyond 18m is ‘profit.’ That would be incorrect. As someone who started a team from scratch and kept it as lean as I could, there are MANY other depts at a race team that are (100 emoji) necessary to operate. Business, marketing, sponsorship, social media, it goes on and on. That all cost a significant amount of money that is above and beyond the numbers listed above. That money is spent as not only as a necessity for our team but to GROW the sport thru on and off the track activation. Hopefully this is helpful when debating this topic.”

NASCAR doesn’t necessarily want to subsidize bells and whistles like private planes and fancy pit boxes, but it does want to come to an equitable deal with teams while protecting its own interests.

To that end, there was some pushback on Denny Hamlin’s claims.

One user on Twitter took a screenshot of a private jet used by Hamlin, along with a story about his use of it. Hamlin responded in kind.

“That belongs to the driver of the 11,” Hamlin wrote. “Not the owner of 23XI.”

On a lighter note, Kligerman, the cohost of the podcast with Cassill, joked with Hamlin, saying, “I’m on the side of what ever gets private jets into Xfinity.”

Denny Hamlin replied simply, “You’re gonna need more revenue boss.“

And at the end of the day, that’s what the discussions with NASCAR boil down to. What is a fair distribution of revenue such that the teams are taken care of while NASCAR still gets its cut of a very lucrative pie? Until a deal is hammered out, expect things to remain tense.