With the championship races approaching, NASCAR fever is getting amplified every day. But a dreaded ultimatum is also looming on the horizon. The current charter agreement is set to expire at the end of the year, and teams are biting their nails about their future. With a grand team like Stewart-Haas Racing out of the picture, who knows what lies in store for others?

And NASCAR seems more than reluctant to help. The current business model in the sport drills financial holes in everybody’s pockets. Despite the dire economic scenario, the executives turn a nonchalant glance to owners like Rick Hendrick, as Denny Hamlin recently revealed.

Denny Hamlin shows the greedy side of NASCAR

Since the birth of the sport in 1948, NASCAR has largely been in the hands of Jim France and his family. And their grip has been solid—the Frances owned tracks and facilities while independent contractors invested their own money and time for the privilege of racing on those tracks. Almost eight decades have passed, and that scenario has hardly changed. Even after a $7.7 billion media rights deal last year, NASCAR executives refuse to assist economically struggling teams. Team owners like Rick Hendrick continue to pay for their expenses.

Initially, the Race Team Alliance kicked off to unite teams—to put their heads together and streamline costs. Soon, however, it had to approach NASCAR itself due to a glaring financial disparity. 23XI Racing team owner Denny Hamlin has been very vocal about NASCAR’s problematic charter stance. As he made an appearance on Kenny Conversation, Hamlin explained, “Over time, sponsorship and ratings declined a little bit, and the teams were the ones that felt the most pressure…salaries got cut, and everything got cut…All while there was record revenue going into our sport.”

So big names like Rick Hendrick and others approached the NASCAR head. As Denny Hamlin further elaborated, he said, “Over the last few years, big team owners have gone to Jim France and said, ‘We need help. Our teams are dropping like flies… we’re championship teams and boom, we’re out of business. How can we stop this? You guys are doing really, really well, and we’re struggling to break even and not lose millions of millions of dollars.’”

However, France simply shook his head. “They received back quite simply, ‘Sorry you cut your deal in 2016, and you’re gonna live by what that deal is…Nope, ain’t gonna do nothing for you.’” That was harsh, right?

Expenses shower on the race teams like raindrops—it costs $18 million to get a car on the track before paying a driver. And guess what? There’s no insurance for these cars! Then, the Next Gen car’s single-source parts are another headache, as they do not last long. Then charter prices skyrocketed—Spire Motorsports bought a charter for $40 million. Add all these to the hotel, travel, and other logistics expenses, and race teams are in a real financial soup. And if what Hamlin revealed is anything to go by, then the charter deal negotiations are only “getting worse.”

The 23 XI co-owner wants NASCAR management to understand how important teams and drivers are to the success of the organization. But right now, that’s not happening. “We’re banging our heads up against the wall because, repeatedly, as these negotiations have gone on, there’s been no negotiation. Every proposal they send back to us is worse than the previous. That is factual; it keeps getting worse. We are worse off than we were 2 years ago, and we are 8 months away from the Daytona 500 and there not being any charters.”

If NASCAR continues to ignore these issues, teams are projected to lose $200 million in the next five years. This is coupled with the sport’s highly complicated nature.

NASCAR’s system baffles sponsors

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The multi-billion-dollar media rights deal signed last year splices up profits haphazardly. Teams receive 39% of the television revenue, tracks get 51%, and NASCAR gets 10%. It would be worth noting that NASCAR executives own most of the tracks, so you know which coffers the greens are going into. Last year, team owners told the media they rely on sponsors as their lifeblood; 80% of the revenue is generated there. Yet sponsors themselves often scratch their heads at the complicated model of the sport.

Denny Hamlin explained this baffling scenario: “Ask any sponsor that tries to come in. They say NASCAR is the most complicated sport ever to participate in. Because the track owns real estate, NASCAR owns that, the teams own that.” So, the Race Team Alliance is trying to notch down the complexity a bit, like other sports leagues. “So we’re trying to go to NASCAR and say, ‘Let’s lock arms, let’s do this together. We’ll give you these rights to go shop for us. That way, when you get an official sponsor, it goes to all of us.’ Same as with the NBA, the NFL, and the MLB.”

While NASCAR teams rely almost entirely on sponsorships, Major League Baseball is vastly different. It generates only 10% of its revenue from sponsorship sales. At the same time, the MLB receives $100 million annually from the league’s media rights contract. And team owners like Denny Hamlin and Rick Hendrick are trying to achieve that level of financial stability.

Hopefully, the NASCAR higher-ups will pay heed to team owners’ concerns soon and without further ado.