Dale Earnhardt Jr Finds Team Owners’ Misery “Fascinating” While He Steers Clear of the Drama

Over the last few days, conversations surrounding NASCAR’s charter negotiations with teams have revealed major friction between the stakeholders. With Denny Hamlin expressing his grievances to Dale Earnhardt Jr in great detail on the Dale Jr Download, the JR Motorsports owner seems to have had a strong change of heart.

Compared to his earlier regrets over not owning a Cup Series team, Earnhardt Jr couldn’t help but sympathize with the plight of team owners. Instead of wishing he had purchased a charter when it was ‘cheaper’, the JR Motorsports owner now waited in anticipation to see which party would come out on top.

Dale Earnhardt Jr explains why he finds the hurdles in charter negotiations ‘fascinating’

On the latest episode of the Dale Jr Download, the hosts sat down with guest Denny Hamlin to go over the current status of charter negotiations. As we’re well aware, NASCAR and the team owners are currently not in agreement, with Hamlin also citing four pillars (making charters permanent, increased revenue to better cover operating costs, more involvement for team owners in important decisions, and revenue shares from NASCAR’s other business ventures) that need to be worked on. After the 23XI Racing co-owner called out NASCAR for not letting fans in on the grim reality, Earnhardt Jr was happy to be out of the dust.

The JR Motorsports owner shared once Hamlin dropped out of the podcast. Earnhardt Jr had gone over Jeff Gluck’s article for The Athletic, which, according to Hamlin, had covered the four key areas of improvement well.

Junior had used the word ‘fascinating’ to describe the ongoing negotiations. With both team owners and NASCAR being in a stalemate, Earnhardt Jr feels the end is not going to be simple or thrilling. He added, “I feel like I keep using the word fascinating, but both sides seem hard-headed about how they want to go about this, and I don’t mean that in a bad way, man. For lack of a better word to describe it, both sides seem stuck in how they feel about this.” 

For Earnhardt Junior, the charter negotiations reminded him of the cut-throat racing he once witnessed in the Cup Series. In a similar fashion to this year’s Atlanta finish, Dale Jr believed only one side would come out on top. He added, “I mean, for me, it’s just as interesting as watching the last ten laps of the Dover race or the end of Talladega, watching how this plays out, is like watching a race come down to the finish with two drivers trying to duke it out.” 

Though it’s safe to say that one side might come out on top at the end, Dale Jr’s opinion on the matter wouldn’t satisfy the team owners.

“That’s nothing new!” – Junior highlights a grim reality to optimistic team owners

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On the podcast, Denny Hamlin highlighted two key factors that were of utmost importance to teams. One was the fact that the charter wasn’t permanent for teams like JGR and HMS, whilst the other was the shocking contrast in profit margins between NASCAR, SMI, and team owners.

As things stand, Hamlin revealed how teams were losing out on seven-figure sums at the same time that NASCAR was bringing in nine-figure profits. However, this is where the JRM owner felt there was an unrealistic expectation by team owners to bring in profits. After all, motorsports isn’t known for being the most lucrative of sports.

Junior stated; “If we don’t give the teams what they’re asking for, are we holding ourselves back? Are we keeping ourselves from becoming global? From becoming lucrative? From becoming profitable? It says in that a0rticle, teams lost money in the Clash, teams lose money every year. That’s nothing new! I’ve never made any money racing. You don’t make money racing anywhere!” 

Throughout Junior’s career, the established veteran had reportedly never been privileged enough to earn profits on his racing endeavors. This naturally left Junior with doubts over the team owners’ ambitions. He concluded; “I would love to know where somebody is racing a race car and making money doing it..(…)…Every cup team I’ve ever known didn’t make money. But the teams think that’s possible, and it’s realistic and should be happening, but that’s so foreign to me.”

Dale Earnhardt Junior’s 180 degree turn on the prospect of owning a Cup Series team in the current climate certainly leaves doubts over JRM’s future expansion. That being said, seems like Junior would rather wait it out before even thinking about purchasing charters.