Fired up Denny Hamlin claps back at former NASCAR driver on operating costs, charter agreements

Denny Hamlin responded to comments made by Landon Cassill on “The Money Lap” podcast in which the former NASCAR driver chimed in on Hamlin’s claim that it cost $18 million for 23XI Racing to put a car on the racetrack week in and week out.

Cassill started the conversation when he said that NASCAR could easily take the position of it’s not making Hamlin and 23XI spend $18 million on operating costs.

“NASCAR is not making you hire 100 engineers,” Cassill said. “NASCAR is not making you rent private jets. NASCAR is not making you spend $250,000 on a pit box.”

Hamlin wrote on X that the $18 million he cited while speaking with Kenny Wallace on “Kenny Conversation” is just the amount to field a racecar and doesn’t include the cost to have a driver to pilot that car or anything extra such as team members.

Denny Hamlin issues response back to Landon Cassill

“Well. Lots of thoughts,” Hamlin wrote Tuesday. “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 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.”

Denny Hamlin expresses frustration with NASCAR over charter negotiations

Hamlin has been the most vocal with his displeasure about how negotiations, or the lack thereof, have gone. Hamlin told Wallace that every proposal NASCAR has sent over to teams has been worse than the one before it. As a result, no progress is being made with time running out. The current charter agreement comes to an end after the 2024 Cup Series season.

Hamlin said that teams have asked NASCAR to cover their operating costs. To this point, NASCAR isn’t budging.

“We’re trying to make it more simple and we’re trying to go to NASCAR and say, ‘Let’s lock arms. Let’s do this together. We’ll give you these rights to go shop for us. That way when you go get an official sponsor, it goes to all of us.’ Same as with the NBA, the NFL, MLB does,” Hamlin said. “When they go get a league sponsor, every team gets a little piece of that and then the league gets a portion as well. It’s not like [in NASCAR]. We compete for the same sponsors that NASCAR does. We have our own sponsors that NASCAR will send their own sponsorship proposal to try to get them to spend money with them.

“And it’s like but we need them the most because of our business model. It cost us $18 million a year to put a car on the racetrack. We’ve asked NASCAR to just cover our costs. Nothing more, just cover our costs to go put on this show for you. And the answer has been repeatedly no. You will get what we give you and you will like it. And so, if you don’t, then don’t be a part of this.”