Denny Hamlin reflects on 'regrettable' argument with Marcus Smith: 'Underlying frustration from my standpoint'
Earlier this week, Denny Hamlin and Speedway Motorsports CEO Marcus Smith got into a heated exchange on X in which both took personal shots at each other.
Speaking with the media Saturday ahead of Sunday’s Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Speedway, Hamlin said that his spat with Smith was the result of some “underlying frustration” with the economic state of NASCAR coming out in real time. Hamlin revealed he was messaging Smith on the side, even as the two traded barbs well past midnight on Friday morning.
“Certainly, there were some underlying frustration from my standpoint that I let get the better of me,” Hamlin said, via Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports. “No doubt about it. Certainly, it didn’t need to get personal but it kind of took a turn for that pretty quick. Regrettable from my standpoint but yeah it is, right, ultimately between the tracks and NASCAR, there’s nearly a half a billion dollars in profit and I hate to see we’re [teams] struggling to swim upstream and that’s how they spend their profits.
“It’s tough because we’re in a fight, right? It’s not pretty. Not going to be pretty. There’s some underlying frustration there that I let get out in the wrong way.”
Hamlin’s back-and-forth 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.
Hamlin offered a scathing review of Smith’s company.
“When paving on a budget goes wrong,” Hamlin wrote. “NWB will be next.”
Denny Hamlin irked by NASCAR’s economic model
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.
Hamlin hinted in his initial tweet that the newly repaved North Wilkesboro Speedway would be the next track to have issues. He revealed Saturday that Joe Gibbs Racing recently reported some issues with the new racing surface.
“We had a car at the test that had some issues, yeah,” Hamlin said. “I’ll focus more on the positives and that’s every track that has been paved in the last six years has had no patches on it whatsoever. They’ve done a really good job in investing their profits back into the racetracks really well. Let’s just kind of learn from this and move on.”