Denny Hamlin’s fiancée Jordan Fish texted him a clip from the movie “Moneyball” while he was processing the response to his race team’s filing of an antitrust complaint against NASCAR this week.
As Boston Red Sox owner John Henry in the movie, the actor states, “The first guy through the wall — he always gets bloody.” They perceive this as a threat to the game, not merely a method of conducting business. In actuality, it’s jeopardizing their jobs and means of subsistence. The manner they operate is concerning.
After Front Row Motorsports and 23XI Racing, which he co-owns with Michael Jordan, filed a lawsuit against NASCAR on Wednesday, alleging monopoly status in federal court, Hamlin found that clip relatable. People who want to see the established quo challenged have responded well, according to Hamlin, and it has relieved him of some stress as he attempts to qualify quickly for Round 3 of the playoffs.
“We didn’t wake up one day and said, ‘This is going to happen,'” Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin said prior to his eighth-place qualifying finish in Sunday’s NASCAR playoff race at Talladega Superspeedway. This has been pending for some time. Now that the case is public and more people are speaking out against its validity, it has given me the relief to concentrate more on operating the No. 11 car and all of my responsibilities there.
For Hamlin, it was undoubtedly a long time coming, but for others in the NASCAR garage, the news was still being processed along with potential implications for the racing teams and the organization’s future.
“This is undoubtedly the most significant narrative in the sport,” RFK Racing driver and owner Brad Keselowski stated. This is an additional episode of the soap opera “As The World Turns: NASCAR.” We’ll all discover the outcome together.
As Keselowski stated, he “wouldn’t expect” his team to file a lawsuit, owner Richard Childress, a six-time champion, agreed. RFK and Richard Childress Racing both signed the 2025 charter agreement last month, which features a provision that forbids teams from launching any antitrust action against NASCAR. (Front Row and 23XI declined to sign it.)
However, Childress asserted in the lawsuit that clubs were coerced into signing the new contracts.
“We were forced to sign them,” Childress remarked. “It was simply a case of either sign it or lose your charters.” I just could not take that chance. And many of the owners I spoke with felt exactly the same way, I know.
So does he think NASCAR is a monopoly?
Childress stated, “I’ll put it this way: If you want to race, you race in their park if you want to race NASCAR.”
On Saturday, NASCAR once more declined to comment; the company has not yet responded to the lawsuit in public. A court filing said 23XI and Front Row will seek for a preliminary injunction next week, following which NASCAR must react in its own case within two weeks.
Drivers, meanwhile, said they were keeping a careful eye on the issue in the media and that, in their opinion, it was the biggest to affect NASCAR in years.
Whatever happens, this is big for our sport, according to driver Joey Logano of Team Penske. Since we’ve never seen anything like it before, it must be large.
However, many claimed they had no strong feelings either way because they didn’t know what would happen in the end.
William Byron, a driver for Hendrick Motorsports, expressed his desire for greater prosperity in his sport. “I’m looking forward to seeing other professional sports and where we might be. So hopefully that comes to fruition.”
This week, 23XI co-owner Curtis Polk made headlines when he claimed that drivers’ compensation pale in comparison to other athletes’ earnings and the combined revenue of other sports leagues. According to some inside NASCAR, driver salaries have dropped sharply from their peak in the mid-2000s, although they are not disclosed to the public.
Driver Kyle Larson of Hendrick Motorsports stated, “We’re probably one of the only sports, if not the only sport, where athlete salaries have gone down in the last couple decades.” Naturally, we would prefer to see an increasing trend rather than the contrary. However, the teams most likely need to generate much more revenue in order to be able to pay the employees of their companies.
Front Row driver Michael McDowell, along with 23XI drivers Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick, offered their support for the steps their team owners were taking.
The only Black driver in the Cup Series, Wallace said, “I look at myself as an advocate for change and standing up for change.” “I stand behind my team 100%, and we’ll see where it takes us. It’s a crazy time to be in NASCAR.”
Despite Front Row’s tight and efficient operation, team owner Bob Jenkins still needs to invest “millions and millions and millions” of dollars in the team in order for it to be even somewhat competitive, according to McDowell, the race winner on Sunday.
“There’s a problem if he has to spend his own money,” McDowell remarked.
Regarding Hamlin, he was questioned about whether he thought NASCAR valued 23XI’s financial support of the sport. He pressed his lips together and waited a long ten seconds before responding.
Most likely not, he replied.
