“As long as you can survive, you always have another year to prove your worthiness.” Gene Haas’ words seemed mysterious at the beginning of the year. But by mid-2024, we knew that his NASCAR operation had lost that anchor of survival. Stewart-Haas Racing, once a glorious team in the Cup Series, had started to lag from 2021 onwards. One thing led to another, with the team losing precious sponsors and its owners reaching their wits’ end. Yet they let go too soon, as Denny Hamlin pointed out.

Tony Stewart announced at the beginning of this year that he would replace Leah Pruett, his wife, and Top Fuel racer, in the NHRA. That further cut down his already dwindling presence in SHR. This may have been critical for his team’s downfall, as former SHR driver Kevin Harvick observed. And Denny Hamlin chimed in amidst his own team’s jittery future.

Denny Hamlin moves the spotlight on the owners

Kevin Harvick joined SHR in 2014 and oozed gold immediately. He won five races that season and went on to clinch the team’s second championship. His bond to the team is unparalleled – but after Harvick left in 2023, sponsors left as well. Prominent brands like Smithfield and Busch Light severed their tires with SHR, as since 2021 the team accumulated only four Cup Series wins. With the Ford Performance alliance facing no renewal in sight, these events ultimately shuttled towards SHR’s demise. Yet Harvick sharply pointed out Stewart and Haas’ early departure from their team as another reason for the doom.

And Denny Hamlin tipped his hat to Harvick for being candid about that. While Tony Stewart was busy with Top Fuel racing, Haas was tending to his Haas Formula 1 team. In an episode of ‘Actions Detrimental,‘ Hamlin observed: “It was good to see him sit down with Kevin. I know that Kevin was quite pointed with some comments…just kind of how absent they had been at Stewart-Haas Racing. And Kevin was quite critical of those guys.” Yet Hamlin could not help but empathize with Stewart’s situation, as he ultimately lost his team to NASCAR’s monopolistic system. That is precisely what the NASCAR lawsuit is seeking to root out. “I think this is something that is the head of the snake that we at 23XI or Front Row are talking about.” 

The majority of the problem lies in NASCAR’s unstable economic model. Denny Hamlin compared yesteryears with the present day: “There were so many Fortune 500 companies that they could not find a car to get on…back then, 10-15 years ago.” Now, sponsors are harder to procure as teams compete with NASCAR itself. So only the heavyweights like Hendrick Motorsports or Team Penske stand out. Hamlin continued: “Tony said that if you don’t have a manufacturer deal that they ended up losing based on their performance, and then you start to lose sponsors – then it’s going downhill…I don’t have a Penske Truck rental, and I don’t have Hendrick Automotive to be able to sponsor my cars.”

Denny Hamlin agreed that one team has sustained itself without multi-million dollar businesses. But even that team may be walking on eggshells.

Even the topmost team is not safe

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Joe Gibbs Racing is a stellar fixture on the Cup Series grid. Owning over seven driver’s championships and over 330 wins across all the major series since 1992, it is a top-performing team. Yet JGR achieved all this without any outer business. Joe Gibbs, a Hall of Famer in both NASCAR and football, worked very hard to sustain the revenue. Denny Hamlin underlined that: “Gibbs is an anomaly, they’re kind of a family business. This is all they do, they work really hard at getting sponsorships and servicing those sponsors. And they’ve done a really good job for quite a long time.” 

However, Stewart-Haas Racing’s demise is ringing alarm bells across the garage, even for JGR. With NASCAR firmly denying permanent charters or larger media revenue, teams face an uncertain future. Hamlin said: “It is so critical for teams to financially make it without tens of millions of dollars in sponsorship. But that is just becoming harder and harder.” This toxic economic landscape is where NASCAR chokes teams in an inescapable financial wormhole. That is what Hamlin, Michael Jordan, and Bob Jenkins are risking their teams’ futures to change. They are determined to break the monopolistic practices that NASCAR has harbored for so long.

The NASCAR lawsuit is progressing inside the courtroom, and the injunction hearing is scheduled for November 4, 2024, less than a week before the NASCAR Cup Series season finale. With bitter exchanges between the two sides, let us wait and see if Denny Hamlin is able to change his sport or not.