Denny Hamlin blames NASCAR sponsorship model for Stewart-Haas Racing closure

Denny Hamlin said on his “Actions Detrimental” podcast that NASCAR‘s sponsorship model is partly to blame for Stewart-Haas Racing shutting down operations after the 2024 Cup Series season.

Hamlin, who has been critical of NASCAR’s disinterest in covering teams’ operating costs, said that if the sanctioning body was in fact doing that, SHR would not be closing shop.

“I think this happened over time,” Hamlin said. “You can debate how it happened over time… Had NASCAR’s media dollars covered what it costs to run a car, they would not be shutting down. But unfortunately, we’re still under a sponsorship model that forces us to get millions and millions of dollars in sponsorship just to break even. What that does is it forces teams like SHR to have a tough decision when it comes down to it and they don’t have the sponsorship that they had in years’ past. I think that they’re tired of dealing with the higher-ups and they’re just done with it.”

Under the current economic model, teams get 25% of broadcast revenue, tracks get 65% and NASCAR gets 10%. NASCAR and teams are working on a new charter agreement starting for 2025 and beyond that teams hope will pay them at least half of the revenue TV brings in. NASCAR notably announced $7.7 billion in media rights deals with FOX Sports, NBC, Warner Bros. Discovery and Amazon for 2025-2031.

Hamlin admitted this past weekend “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.”

Stewart-Haas Racing shutting down after 15 years in business

SHR notably lost likely in the low eight figures in annual sponsorship revenue with the departures of Anheuser-Busch, Smithfield Foods and Hunt Brothers Pizza. Tony Stewart said in February that major changes could take place, and that’s indeed happening now. SHR’s tenure will end after 15 years and with two Cup Series championships and 69 wins.

“Not ideal to have a four-car team shutting down but I think they’re just done with NASCAR. Just done screwing with them,” Hamlin said. “They had their Ford deal that ran up at the end of this year. That was gonna be a big financial hit. Sponsorship wasn’t flowing out of its ears at the organization. And so, versus Gene [Haas] and Tony just keep putting more money into this and keep sinking money into it to put on NASCAR’s show, I think they said screw this, we’re out. We’re not gonna sit here and go under financial water just to keep your show going. That doesn’t make sense to us.

“They made a decision and it’s gonna leave a bunch of people unemployed. But I think the good ones will find homes certainly. And there will be teams that expand and try to get some of the good employees out of there.”