Denny Hamlin wants NASCAR to meet their operating costs: ‘They won’t do that’

“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,” Hamlin said. “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.

“… No, they do not reveal it [how much money they’re investing into the sport]. Nope, it’s a secret. Again, this goes back to my frustration. But to be a little bit more transparent with you and everyone listening is that NASCAR asked us to open up our books once we were doing these contract negotiations with them. But like, we open up our books and said, ‘Here’s what our costs are. This is what we need to survive. You need to give us back what it costs for us to do this.’ Like, that is a fair ask is for you to cover our cost to put on this show for you. And they won’t do that.”

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.

Denny Hamlin reflects on ‘regrettable’ argument with Marcus Smith: ‘Underlying frustration from my standpoint’

Hamlin aired his frustration out on X last week, engaging in a heated back-and-forth with Speedway Motorsports CEO Marcus Smith. 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.

“Certainly, there were some underlying frustration from my standpoint that I let get the better of me,” Hamlin said this past Saturday, 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.”