“He Has That Flaw” – Dale Earnhardt Jr Dissects the Role Denny Hamlin Played in His “Unfortunate” Spat With Marcus Smith

It started with Sonoma Raceway’s poor repave and ended up getting personal with Marcus Smith taking a dig at Denny Hamlin for not having championship or full information about anything. Hamlin clapped back hard, slamming Smith for hogging a hefty slice of NASCAR’s TV revenue pie without even nailing the repave. However, the duo also didn’t take much time to apologize to each other either. And just when things seemed to cool down, Hamlin stirred the pot again on his podcast, rehashing the original beef. Dale Earnhardt Jr didn’t outright go against Hamlin, but he dropped some hints that he wasn’t very pleased with what Hamlin had to say.

Did Dale Earnhardt Jr just call Denny Hamlin ‘mean’?

Denny Hamlin is known for not holding back and not really being apologetic for it. But Dale Earnhardt Jr thinks Hamlin sometimes takes things too far. Chatting about Hamlin’s clash with SMI’s president Marcus Smith, who went at Hamlin for not having a championship 19 years into racing, Dale Jr said, “Denny, this is Denny. This is who Denny is. Unapologetic. When you go at him, he’s coming, he’s gonna get personal. […]”

He added, “I can be friends with Denny..but I know that he has that flaw..He has that ability to, to do something or say something that just makes you want to, ‘Uggghhh!’ And and he can, he can be hurtful, you know, and he can be, you know, he can be mean..and unnecessarily..I guess..for a Racing reference, if you put a donut on his car, he’s gonna give you two back.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr shared that Marcus Smith and Hamlin once tried to hash things out, aiming for some kind of mutual understanding. Yet, the deep-seated mistrust and annoyance between them has been tough to shake off. Hamlin views Marcus Smith as the bigwig track owner fighting for a bigger slice of the TV revenue pie, while Smith pegs Hamlin as a guy who, despite being an owner himself, doesn’t fully grasp how all the pieces in NASCAR fit together.

Junior, dropping some knowledge, pointed out that expecting track owners to open their books is wishful thinking. He explained, “Denny’s saying, well, it’s ’cause they make millions and millions of dollars. Well, yes. No company that’s making that kind of money is gonna make their information available. […] Nobody, no company, you know, outside of these race teams is in the practice of sharing what their bottom dollar is and how their, how their x’s and o’s line up. […] That’s not a realistic expectation. And so, but it’s just, it was unfortunate.”

Considering the spat hasn’t really helped anyone, Dale Jr chose to step back from the drama. But it does raise the question: Is this tiff just the tip of an iceberg of a bigger clash brewing in NASCAR?

The #11 JGR driver and Marcus Smith’s spat a hint at bigger rifts within NASCAR?

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The scuffle might look like a quick flare-up of tempers, but it’s part of a larger backdrop of beef and tension. Right now, NASCAR and its teams are in the thick of hashing out new charter agreements, with teams pushing for a bigger cut of the TV revenue pie than the current 25 percent they pocket, while tracks get 65 percent and NASCAR itself takes 10 percent. Despite NASCAR (which owns most tracks) and Smith being somewhat open to upping the teams’ share, the deals on the table haven’t cut it for the teams.

Smith’s been under fire too for the Texas track mess-up, clinging to the Roval race, and the decision to revamp Atlanta, which really got under the drivers’ skin. After drivers were caught off guard by the Atlanta changes in July 2021, Swift from NASCAR told the Associated Press, “I say this — in kind of jest. When a driver is happy about our racetrack, usually the fans aren’t.”

Read More: “More Ls Than Ws” – Denny Hamlin Brings the Receipts on SMI’s Years of Incompetence and Failures

Hamlin fired back on Twitter, saying, “With all due respect. This same group has reconfigured Texas, Kentucky, Bristol with 0 driver input. One of those lost a race, other one we don’t race anymore and last one we put dirt over it. But hey, what do the drivers know.”

However, Hamlin wasn’t alone in his criticism of the Atlanta changes. Big names like Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, and Kyle Larson also voiced their displeasure. So, well, it’s not just between Denny Hamlin and Marcus Smith apparently.