Denny Hamlin breaks silence on Tony Stewart’s candid admission about 23XI Lawsuit and NASCAR exit

Denny Hamlin has pin-pointed the main issue raised by Tony Stewart in his podcast comments about ceasing SHR’s operations.

Denny Hamlin breaks silence on Tony Stewart’s candid admission about 23XI Lawsuit and NASCAR exit

Denny Hamlin and Tony Stewart (Via IMAGO)

The 2024 NASCAR Cup season finale will mark an end of an era, as championship winning team Stewart Haas Racing is set to cease operations at end of the season. Owners Tony Stewart and Gene Haas made the tough decision owing the financial unsuitability in the sport. Their decision was validated by the recent charter wars.

In a recent podcast appearance with Kevin Harvick, Stewart asserted that he made the right direction considering the poor sponsorship situation with the sport and 23XI Racing-FRM suing the sport for a better charter deal. 23XI co-owner Denny Hamlin talked about Tony Stewart’s comments and highlighted that most of issues the ex-champion talked was about sponsorship.

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Some of those comments to give context were about sponsorship where there were so many Fortune 500 companies that they couldn’t find a car to get on. There were so many opportunities back then and we’re talking 10-15 years ago before the other sports started putting patches on their uniforms and helmets and things like that.

Denny Hamlin said via Actions Detrimental.

While further talking about the point, Denny Hamlin asserted that the sponsorship landscape has changed a slot over the years. He confessed that unlike in the past, teams can’t no longer sustain themselves without tens of millions sponsorship.

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You see many sponsors on my racecars when you used to see one. It’s just very difficult in this landscape and why it’s so critical for the race teams to be able to financially make it without tens of millions of dollars in sponsorship.

Denny Hamlin noted.

Denny Hamlin explains why sponsorship is harder to sustain

The 23XI co-owner also talked about the competition to land sponsorship in NASCAR that isn’t sustaining. He pointed out that the teams are fighting among each other and the sanctioning body over sponsorships, making it impossible for owner to remain in the sport.

Denny Hamlin
Denny Hamlin (Via IMAGO)

But that’s becoming harder and harder, especially when we compete with each other for that sponsorship, and we have to compete against the sanctioning body. NASCAR will be the first one to call up a potential NASCAR sponsor to be like, ‘Hey, sponsor us.’ That just makes it very hard to sustain in this sport, which is why we’ve seen so many owners go.

Denny Hamlin said.

The points from Denny Hamlin highlights the tough times endured by team owners to keep the teams running and why teams are demanding more TV revenue share from NASCAR. It will be interesting to see how the sponsorship situation is now going to evolve, with the lawsuit changing the game.