Denny Hamlin’s Massive JGR Salary Revealed During Charter Lawsuit Trial

23XI Racing’s co-owner Denny Hamlin revealed on court how much he is getting paid to drive for JGR and had an epic comeback against NASCAR lawyer.

Denny Hamlin’s Massive JGR Salary Revealed During Charter Lawsuit Trial

Denny Hamlin and Chris Gabehart (Via IMAGO)

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Joe Gibbs Racing veteran Denny Hamlin has been the personal of interest for the media in the first two days of the anti-trust lawsuit, as he was in the stands for over 4 hours. He gave his testimony on day one and on the second day was grilled by NASCAR’s lawyer Lawrence Buterman, who was trying exposes the supposed hypocrisy of the teams.

One of the major revelations made during the testimony was how much Denny Hamlin, a three times Daytona 500 champion, gets paid from his team Joe Gibbs Racing. The veteran revealed to the court that he is getting around $14 million to drive the No:11 Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs. It’s a major revelation considering the drivers salaries are one of the best kept secrets in the sport.

Sometime after the revelation shifted the focus to the Driver Ambassador Program that was introduced in the 2025 season, aimed to rewarding drivers that does more PR work for the sport. Denny Hamlin, as the owner of 23XI where two drivers Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace are being drivers with more market pull wasn’t happy about it.

The teams are forced give up their driver’s time to promote NASCAR sponsors not their teams and they also had to pay 40 percent of the DAP money ‘to pay for the marketing program’ with no great benefits. Buterman used the opportunity to call Hamlin out by claiming he doesn’t want the driver to get paid, which he counted by highlighting how teams pay the drivers. The lawyer also asked why many other drivers don’t make as much as him and he had an epic response.

LB: Most drivers don’t make 14 million a year

DH: Most drivers don’t win the number of races I do.

Denny Hamlin and Lawrence Buterman in court.

Denny Hamlin got furious over Lawrence Buterman’s attempt to make his less credible

It appears that one of the big strategies of the NASCAR lawyers was to make Denny Hamlin’s words as less credible or for the jury to doubt the comments. They used the veteran drivers’ contradicting comments from the past regarding the Next-Gen to put forth this narrative.

Denny Hamlin
Denny Hamlin (Via IMAGO)

The JGR veteran has been very critical of the Next-Gen car that cost team over $20 million a year to field, claiming they failed to reduce the cost as NASCAR initially claimed. But in his appearance on the Full Speed docuseries and on Kenny Wallace’s podcast he had spoken positively about the cars.

The lawyer called this out during the cross-examination. He explained that it was his duty to follow the instructions from NASCAR to speak positively about the car in public. The lawyers asked Hamlin that does that mean his words shouldn’t be taken seriously and it angered the veteran, who called the narrative nonsense.

LB: Did you just say we can’t take your words seriously?

DH: That’s nonsense!

Denny Hamlin and Lawrence Buterman in court.

The digs and bold statements are going to continue in the court, with both 23XI-FRM and NASCAR being determined to come out the victor in the trial. It would be interesting to see how everything is going to playout for the teams in the coming days as the trial progresses.

Also Read: Dale Earnhardt Jr. And Tony Stewart Brands Kyle Larson an “Alien and a Diamond in the Rough”