Denny Hamlin doesn't feel like Speedway Motorsports has invested in improving some tracks
Denny Hamlin said on Monday’s “Actions Detrimental” podcast that he doesn’t feel like Speedway Motorsports has invested enough capital into improving the surface at racetracks they own and manage.
Hamlin gave credit to Speedway Motorsports for creating things such as the ROVAL at Charlotte Motor Speedway but said that’s now been played out “for a few years.” He continued, saying their most recent track re-pavements have not been up to standard.
“My frustration with SMI is I don’t feel like that investment’s really been made on their part and surely you can combat that with well they did the ROVAL [at Charlotte Motor Speedway] — OK, I think the ROVAL has been played out for a few years. I think everyone in the industry and probably fans would rather have us back on the oval at this point. It was because the oval racing was so stagnant, so they took it upon themselves to do the ROVAL. You can say that they brought back North Wilkesboro — COVID brought back North Wilkesboro. They used COVID funds,” Hamlin said. “They got a bunch of money from the government to do that. So, they always owned North Wilkesboro, but they finally put the investment back in it.
“That was good to see and I’m sure there’s more to the story for sure. We could probably list off a bunch of things that they’ve done in a positive manner. They redid Atlanta. But I look at these tracks and I say, well let’s look at the last three or four paving jobs that SMI has done. And they’ve had to put patches on the track before we even had our racecars on it. Clearly, you’ve got different contractors doing the paving at Sonoma and [Speedway Motorsports CEO] Marcus [Smith] said this, ‘Well, we’ve got different pavers at Sonoma than we did at North Wilkesboro. I didn’t even know North Wilkesboro had a problem.’ And so, I’m like, ‘Well, that might be your problem because you don’t have any communication with your people.’ Yes, it did have problems and it probably will in the future.
Denny Hamlin goes back-and-forth with Speedway Motorsports CEO Marcus Smith on X
“It’s frustrating because we know that they’re taking a bulk and whenever we go to an SMI [Speedway Motorsports] track, they’re taking the bulk of the money from the TV revenue. And I know personally how much that I’ve invested in 23XI. I would venture to guarantee you that 23XI has invested more in this sport than SMI has invested in the last 10 years. And we’ve done it in four years. Just this one team has invested more in this sport. So, there’s a problem there. Especially when we get roughly you know half of what they get on any given weekend.”
Hamlin has been vocal of his frustration with Speedway Motorsports, engaging in a heated back-and-forth with Smith last week on X. Hamlin’s exchange with Smith started when he responded to a photo shared by NASCAR on Reddit. The photo showed the newly repaved track surface at Sonoma Raceway coming up on Turn 11. The issue forced the cancelation of SRO America testing at the racetrack, one of 11 racetracks owned by Speedway Motorsports.
“When paving on a budget goes wrong,” Hamlin wrote. “NWB will be next.”
Hamlin has particularly taken issue with NASCAR’s economic model, which is quite favorable to the tracks. Under the current economic model, teams get 25% of broadcast revenue, tracks get 65% and NASCAR gets 10%. All three parties are currently working on a new deal starting for 2025 and beyond that teams hope will pay them at least half of the revenue TV brings in, per Matt Weaver of Sportsnaut. NASCAR notably announced $7.7 billion in media rights deals with FOX Sports, NBC, Warner Bros. Discovery and Amazon for 2025-2031.