According to Racing America, as a driver for Joe Gibbs Racing and co-owner of the 23XI Racing NASCAR Cup Series team, Denny Hamlin’s voice carries a lot of weight within the NASCAR Cup Series garage. And as the driver/owner has shown in the past, he isn’t afraid to let his opinions be known.
At the beginning of the current racing season Hamlin accused the sanctioning body of monopolizing the direction of the sport.
The 51-time NASCAR Cup Series race winner says the teams should have more pull than they do, and the drivers should, at the very least, have a seat at the table as well. Hamlin says, as things are presently laid out, the drivers are just along for the ride.
“I think I overestimated how much the RTA (Race Team Alliance) has a seat at the table now that I’m a part of it,” Hamlin admitted. “I think that this whole thing is such a monopoly that you kind of get shut down in different areas – you’re allowed in some places, but not in others, that it’s very different.
“I do think the drivers are in a better place now [than a few years ago] in the sense that they have an unofficial association. Again, it’s only a seat at the table if you’re allowed to be. It’s not an official seat at the table.”
Hamlin cited the ongoing negotiations between the Race Team Alliance and NASCAR regarding the future of the Charter agreement and how the 2025 NASCAR broadcasting rights money will be divvied up as potentially one of the reasons that NASCAR has been hesitant to hand out another seat at the decision-making table within the sport.
“Saying that the race teams and their agreement with NASCAR is why there are butting heads there,” Hamlin explained. “So, there’s only a seat if you’re allowed a seat and they’re only going to allow a seat in a few certain situations, but I do think there’s avenues to the divers being more equitable in the sport in the future.”
How the negotiations between the RTA and NASCAR ultimately play out could determine what, if any, voice the drivers have within the decision-making side of the sport in the future. Regardless, it feels strange that one of the largest stakeholders in the sport — the drivers — has no real say in what happens within the sport in which they compete.
Here’s another view as 23XI Racing co-owner Michael Jordan told The New York Times that NASCAR’s unwillingness to create permanent charters for Cup teams is “a big, big miss” and that “if you don’t correct that, the sport’s going to die not because of the competition aspect, but because economically it doesn’t make sense for any business people.”
Jordan’s comments are his first publicly on the issue. Cup team owners seek to extend the charter agreement beyond this season and receive additional revenue from NASCAR.
NASCAR’s charter system has been in place since 2016. There are 36 charters. Each team is required to compete in every event. In exchange, teams receive a payment based on being at each event, performance in the event, the season-ending points fund and performance from the past three seasons.
Even with that in place, Steve Newmark, president of RFK Racing, noted in 2022 that sponsorship comprised about 60-80% of a team’s overall revenue.
Elsewhere Woodbury, CT’s Santino Ferrucci returned to the AJ Foyt IndyCar team for the 2024 season. The American will partner Sting Ray Robb for the full season, driving the #14 car in every round.
The 25-year-old former Haas F1 junior has raced for Dale Coyne, Rahal Letterman Lanigan, Dreyer and Reinbold and Juncos Hollinger across five seasons in the IndyCar championship. In his first full season with AJ Foyt last year he finished in the top ten only once, but that was an impressive third place finish in the Indy 500 as well as some NASCAR Xfinity events over the past few years for Sam Hunt Racing.
Here’s a schedule of 2024 major motorsports events in the Six State New England Area.
The Annual NHRA National event will be held at New England Dragway in Epping, NH on May 31-June 2 at the ¼ mile dragstrip.
The Annual Laconia NH Bike Weekend is scheduled for June 7 to June 16 with several events in the Lake Area of the Granite State.
The Annual big NASCAR Weekend will be held earlier this year at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, NH on June 22-23. Because the venue is trying to avoid the very hot July weather which could result in selling more tickets to the event.
The AMA MX National will be held at The Wick 338 in Southwick, MA on June 27-29
The 2024 Loring Timing Association Land Speed Trials in Limestone, ME over two of the Summer Holiday Weekends of July 17-20 and Aug 28-31.
Note: The FIA Forest Rally in ME and NH was scratched this year due to unavailable forest roads in the North Woods much to the disappointment of the fans who attended this event every year.
