Dale Earnhardt Jr. has spoken out in response to Denny Hamlin’s dissatisfaction with how NASCAR approaches charter negotiations with teams. On X, Hamlin, co-owner of 23XI Racing with Michael Jordan, responded to a post in which NASCAR CEO Jim France stated that the sport’s support is based on media deals.
In response to France’s statements, Hamlin issued a simple rebuttal: “Permanent charters don’t cost anything.” Hamlin then dug down on his comments, revealing his thought process behind his team’s charters.
“It has to make financial sense, and the charter agreement needs to be better than what it is certainly before I invest any more money in it,” he said on his “Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin” podcast.
Earnhardt then responded to Hamlin’s comments on a recent Q&A segment. The NASCAR legend shared his thoughts on the charter and explained what he thought about Hamlin’s post about permanent charters.
“Well, I think I would have to get further into the conversation to understand but I believe if the teams get permanent charters, then NASCAR is obligated to support those charters through the agreement, giving them that amount of money per race,” he began. “If NASCAR knew for eternity we’re going to make hundreds of millions of dollars on TV, they would probably be more comfortable making the charters permanent because they can then financially support the agreement forever.
“But until they can support that agreement, I don’t know that they can make that commitment. I can see both sides of the argument. I promise you if I had a charter I wanted to be permanent, I would not want the risk of losing it.”
Currently, NASCAR’s teams are attempting to rework the current deal, which is set to expire after the 2024 season. In 2016, NASCAR and its teams agreed on the charter system, which allows teams to field cars in races and get a greater share of the prize money from NASCAR.
Teams are then able to do what they wish with the charters, most commonly selling them off if the team were to shutter. And while NASCAR already has stated who its broadcasting partners are for the 2025 season and beyond, there have been no updates regarding a reworked charter system, along with a greater share of the revenue.
“I see Jim’s point and I hope that the team can move forward and agree, but I also think there will be other opportunities down the road to bring that argument back up,” Earnhardt said. “The teams are always going to want to make the charter’s permanent.
“If I own the charter, I would certainly be telling you right now that I want my charter to be permanent. And so when the deal gets renegotiated down the road – however long this new agreement will be – the teams will have a chance to argue this again.
“It’s not the end of the road in terms of this conversation around making charters forever, it just might not happen [in] this round in terms of the new charter agreement.”
NASCAR differs from other sports in that the France family owns the sport, along with a handful of the tracks used. Simply put, whatever money is earned from the network deals goes to the racks itself, with NASCAR getting 10 percent and its teams receiving whatever’s left, per Yahoo.
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