Dale Earnhardt Jr Exposes Denny Hamlin’s $2 Million Excuse Amidst All-Star Controversy

The All-Star Race has been a haven of experiments. Being one of the season’s few non-points Cup Series races, NASCAR has used the event as a testing ground. Remember the 2020 race having the ‘Choose Rule’? Well, it allowed fans to vote on a rule, repositioning car numbers towards the rear wheels, and adding neon lights to the cars. However, the latest proposal was met with resounding disapproval from team owners. They included Denny Hamlin, who highlighted that it simply magnified the financial burden that teams already face from the Next-Gen car. However, Dale Earnhardt Jr. disagreed with the 23XI Racing team owner, though.

The 26-time Cup Series race winner has a special connection with the All-Star Race. After reviving North Wilkesboro Speedway, Dale Earnhardt Jr saw his resurrected arena be adopted by NASCAR for the All-Star Race. And the veteran driver was excited about the sanctioning body’s newest experimental idea at the track.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. waters down Hamlin’s concerns

In a drive to make it more thrilling and inspiring, NASCAR proposed a ‘run what you brung’ race. Teams would have more lenient rules to play by than they’ve experienced since 2022, when the Next Gen car was introduced. Despite this revolutionary suggestion to offer teams the control they had been demanding for ages, NASCAR’s offer was turned down. One of the primary reasons was the high cost, as teams would be tempted to explore the full range of what’s possible. According to Denny Hamlin, his three-car 23XI Racing team stood to lose $2 million if they accepted NASCAR’s revamped All-Star Race rules. For mid-tier or lower-tier teams, it would be a tough proposition considering tight operational budgets. Yet Dale Earnhardt Jr. begged to differ with Hamlin’s take.

In a recent Dale Jr Download episode, Dale Earnhardt Jr scoffed at Denny Hamlin’s estimation. The veteran said that Hamlin’s $2 million prediction may be over the top. “That’s overstating it. I think it would cost the teams some money for sure, but not $2 million.” He suggested that maybe Hamlin was trying to pressure NASCAR to increase the purse. “I think that’s just a heavy excuse to say, ‘Yeah, this is why I didn’t want to do it’…I think he is overstating the cost to make a point…He’s already mad about the damn purse being $1 Million for 30 years. He said that over and over, and that’s fine, that’s a great argument. I think that the race should pay $3 million to the winner.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr. let the cat out of the bag, potentially sabotaging Denny Hamlin’s intentions to tweak the All-Star prize money. However, the veteran supported Hamlin’s other points. After the limited moves that drivers could make in the Next-Gen car at Talladega, another idea would have been better. Dale Jr said that Denny “had a great show talking all about that, with such great insight, helping us understand why the races at Daytona and Talladega look the way they look…I thought it would be kind of neat to open the rules up a little bit. And that was Denny’s point that I really, really liked…One of his ideas was, why didn’t NASCAR just say, this particular part of the car is free game? That might have been something they entertained.” And maybe Junior has a point here.

Denny Hamlin has been very vocal about two things lately: Power and driver wages. One of them is the underpowered next-gen cars, making it impossible to win without bump-drafting. A driver cannot single-handedly overtake competition as it happened in the earlier generation. This is something that was noticeable at Talladega a few days ago. Joey Logano was visibly frustrated and voiced his displeasure with teammate Austin Cindric after the second stage of the Talladega race. Austin Cindric did not provide the push Logano needed to overtake Bubba Wallace for the stage win, and Logano said on his radio, “Way to go, Austin, way to go, you dumb f—!” Why should drivers wait for someone to draft them? So Denny, of course, sees something.

If teams are given leeway on what they want in their cars (without compromising safety), it could open a whole different perspective for the drivers. And as a driver-owner, if Denny Hamlin does not take up the cause, who will? But let’s address the elephant in the room now. Despite Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s hopes, NASCAR cannot move forward with its experiment this year. That is because teams rejected the offer. However, Dale Jr. also opposed another proposition for the All-Star Race.

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Denying control to the higher-ups

Well, Dale Earnhardt Jr would have loved to see drivers get more control at the All-Star Race. However, the veteran driver is not in favor of NASCAR’s higher-ups getting undue authority. Called the ‘Promoter’s Caution’, the new idea would see drivers facing an unexpected caution anytime before lap 220. Speedway Motorsports’ Marcus Smith can throw a competition caution. This will happen whenever they choose up until the final 50 laps in the race. Smith can use it only once and only if there has not been a natural caution. This only highlights that Speedway Motorsports owns North Wilkesboro Speedway. It is hosting the All-Star Race for the third consecutive year after the historic track was resurrected.

This idea has already met with skepticism and ridicule in the Cup Series garage. Dale Earnhardt Jr is in that group of protesters, as the veteran suggested an alternate idea. He called for a fan-focused initiative in an X post. “The ‘promoters caution’ at the All-Star [sic] race in North Wilkesboro should have been determined by a live fan-controlled poll within an app one could download and use from home or at track.” Two-time Cup Series champion Kyle Busch furiously railed against this higher control given to the promoters. The 2017 All-Star Race winner said, “What are we doing? If we’re Bailey and Barnum (the circus), then let’s just freaking call it Bailey and Barnum. I mean, they went out of business.”

Evidently, Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s approach to NASCAR’s All-Star ideas was divided. With the event looming on the horizon next month, anticipation is running high.