$1 Million to $100,000 – Denny Hamlin Reveals The Major Drop in Inventory Investment by Teams Since 2022

As NASCAR aims to reduce operational expenses by shortening practice sessions, fans from the community and insiders alike have caused a major uproar about how the move isn’t delivering on the promised cost-effectiveness. With both Dale Earnhardt Jr and Brad Keselowski calling out NASCAR for their questionable decisions, the officials have found an unlikely ally that came to their defense.

Only a few days ago, Denny Hamlin revealed a shocking fact about JGR’s spending during the 2022 season. According to his crew chief, Coach Gibbs’ side had spent close to a jaw-dropping million dollars on unused tire sets! Though this revelation was baffling for a majority of the NASCAR community, the 23XI co-owner put fans at ease by pointing out the changes brought around to help curb the exorbitant costs.

Denny Hamlin puts the community at ease over JGR’s shocking spending spree on unused tires

When a tire set itself costs close to $2400 (according to Hamlin), it’s no wonder that any unused sets would add up to a major bill for Joe Gibbs Racing to foot. But why exactly did Coach Gibbs’ side opt for so many sets and how did no foresight protect the squad from blowing a million dollars on unused tires? And is the situation still the same two years after the Next Gen’s debut? The 23XI Racing co-owner had an answer for each of those questions.

He shared with FrontStretch, “I mean, you know, that was (million dollar bill) actually probably due to the high tire allotment because they didn’t know how many tires we were going to burn, so they gave us a sh*t ton of tires and then we didn’t use them, and then of course then we’re kind of stuck with them at that point, so.”

Though drivers and teams often use leftover tires in the following races to help negate any wastage, respecting the tire date codes also means that the tires can only be utilized until a certain point, after which their value diminishes immediately. As teams were figuring out the kind of tire wear that the Next Gen car would generate, the precautions taken on the inventory front may have backfired for JGR.

That said, Hamlin revealed how teams had managed to bring down that number by nearly tenfold over the past few seasons. He shared, “They’ve refined it a little bit more now but we still leave the racetrack sometimes with two or three sets on heavy weekends but on other weekends we use them all, so it’s just balanced itself out now. I would say that for each team, that number is probably closer to like 100 grand or something now.”

Though it may seem evident that the cost-saving measures were implemented by teams over the seasons rather than NASCAR, Denny Hamlin had some solid advice regarding tire allocation.

The 23XI co-owner has not one, but two solid solutions for NASCAR’s tire dilemma

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From fuel-saving strategies boring the community at superspeedways to the short-track tire package failing to deliver on its promises, it’s safe to say NASCAR may be in dire need of a restructuring of the tire compound as well as allocation. Naturally, considering how much his team had spent on tires in 2022, Hamlin had the perfect solution for the stock car racing organization.

With frustrations boiling over, the 23XI co-owner stated in an episode of Actions Detrimental; “We keep talking about cutting costs, cutting costs, cutting costs. How about we just get a f***ing refund for the tires we don’t use? Like can they go back in the recycling bin Goodyear? Please take them back, it’s just a waste of money…”

But that wasn’t all! After Martinsville’s lackluster race, Denny Hamlin also suggested that NASCAR should take a page out of Formula 1’s books. In the pinnacle of motorsports, tire compounds are split into soft, medium, and hard, allowing for flexibility with strategies and pit decisions. In the case of NASCAR, these different tire compounds could work wonders to spice up short-track races.

The 23XI co-owner shared, “I know that Formula 1 each weekend has an option right soft, medium, hard tire. And they decide what’s the best tire for them. Tell me why we can’t do the same? It certainly maybe would create passing because if you gave us some soft options, maybe two sets of soft options for the race this weekend, clearly I know that it’s not going to last.”

After taking a look at how far NASCAR seems to have come in terms of reducing unessential spending, do you think any of Denny Hamlin’s optimistic solutions will be implemented?