Denny Hamlin responds to Tony Stewart comments about leaving NASCAR over state of the sport

Tony Stewart opened up this past week about his decision to leave NASCAR at the end of the 2024 season. Among the reasons for Stewart-Haas Racing closing its doors after 16 seasons, Stewart cited the struggles of finding sponsorship as a four-car race team.

Stewart’s exit from the sport comes at a time where there is angst between NASCAR and its teams over the future of the sport. 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports, who did not sign NASCAR’s final charter proposal at Atlanta Motor Speedway in September, filed a joint antitrust lawsuit against the sanctioning body and CEO Jim France earlier this month, accusing NASCAR and France of “unlawful monopolization of premier stock car racing in order to enrich themselves at the expense of the premier stock car racing teams.”

23XI co-owner Denny Hamlin can sympathize with Stewart’s reasons for leaving, the same reasons for why he’s been so vocal in recent years about the direction the sport is headed.

Denny Hamlin: ‘It’s just very difficult’ to survive as team owner in NASCAR

“Some of those comments to give context were about sponsorship where there were so many Fortune 500 companies that they couldn’t find a car to get on,” Hamlin said on Monday’s “Actions Detrimental” podcast. “There were so many opportunities back then and we’re talking 10-15 years ago before the other sports started putting patches on their uniforms and helmets and things like that. If you have some sponsorship media dollars you want to spend in your company, there’s so many different avenues you can use it for now.

“Facebook ads weren’t a thing and Instagram, so there’s a lot of different things you can use to target your audience. NASCAR has a really strong core fanbase that supports the sponsors that participate in it. So, there’s still lots of great value there. But what Tony is saying is that if you don’t have a manufacturer deal which they ended up losing based off of performance and then you start to lose sponsors, then it’s going downhill. You’re not gonna be able to sustain and it’s why it’s very difficult and he brings this up: I don’t have a Penske Truck Rental, I don’t have Hendrick Automotive to be able to sponsor my cars.

“… You see many sponsors on my racecars when you used to see one. It’s just very difficult in this landscape and why it’s so critical for the race teams to be able to financially make it without tens of millions of dollars in sponsorship. But that’s becoming harder and harder, especially when we compete with each other for that sponsorship, and we have to compete against the sanctioning body. NASCAR will be the first one to call up a potential NASCAR sponsor to be like, ‘Hey, sponsor us.’ That just makes it very hard to sustain in this sport, which is why we’ve seen so many owners go.”

Tony Stewart leaving NASCAR after successful run as SHR owner

At one point not too long ago, SHR was one of NASCAR’s most successful teams. Stewart’s arrival in 2009 legitimized the organization. His capturing of the Cup Series championship in 2011 signaled they would be a player for years to come. Kevin Harvick joined the team in 2014, and he won his first career title that season. SHR has won 70 races in 16 seasons, with Stewart and Harvick leading the way.

However, facing the sponsorship and manufacturer-support challenges, Stewart made the tough decision to get out of NASCAR ownership, leaving more than 300 employees with their futures in doubt. Stewart ultimately felt the criticism he received online and on social media “was very unjust.”

“The bashing I got online and on social media was very unjust through the process,” Stewart told Harvick on his “Happy Hour” podcast. “It’s easy to sit on your ass, on a chair, on your couch in your mom’s house and sit there and tell us how we’re doing it wrong. But nobody can seem to sit there and come in on Monday morning and tell us how to do it right.

“I feel like our group did a great job of taking care of our people the best that we could. And with the right intentions and with the attitude of our employees came first. And that’s what the focus has been this year. Making sure that we do everything to take care of our employees in a season that’s a transition year for everybody.”

Denny Hamlin explains why SHR, Tony Stewart did not have ‘staying power’ in NASCAR

Ultimately, SHR did not have staying power in NASCAR. That, Hamlin said, is only guaranteed for teams such as Penske and Hendrick.

“The only people who have the staying power in our sport for forever and ever are Penske and Hendrick,” Hamlin said. “It’s probably why they win the bulk of the races. Gibbs you can definitely throw in there as well, but they’re the only ones who can sustain their sponsorship because the b to b they leverage to get that sponsorship. No one else really has the ability to do that, which makes everyone so fragile and makes it so hard to invest, which makes it hard to perform.

“It’s just a snowball that happens in this business that makes it extremely difficult. Tony, obviously, has been looking at things from the outside and is like this is a good time for me to check out. He’s been vocal over the last few years as an owner and even more so as a driver back in the day about change. He was me before me. Fans just embraced it a little differently. But we definitely need a change.”