UPDATE 3: The exact percentage of broadcast revenue money for teams is slightly higher than the 25 percent when factoring in purse money but Hamlin believes Speedway Motorsports does not appropriately invest into its tracks.
He also says that his 23XI Racing team that he co-owns with Michael Jordan has invested more capital into the sport than Speedway Motorsports has over the past decade.
“It’s frustrating because we know that they’re taking a bulk and whenever we go to an SMI track, they’re taking the bulk of the money from the TV revenue,” Hamlin said on his podcast on Monday. “And I know personally how much that I’ve invested in 23XI. I would venture to guarantee you that 23XI has invested more in this sport than SMI has invested in the last 10 years. And we’ve done it in four years. Just this one team has invested more in this sport. So, there’s a problem there. Especially when we get roughly you know half of what they get on any given weekend.”
Hamlin says he has had conversations with Smith where exactly how much revenue they receive gets brought up and that the track owner isn’t willing to even broadly share that number. He says Smith won’t divulge that number due to how much it is and that he believes Smith doesn’t spend an appropriate amount on its facilities and racing surfaces.
— Sportsnaut —
UPDATE 2 4-7-2024: Denny Hamlin says he let some underlying frustrations about the economic state of NASCAR get the best of him on Thursday night and Friday morning in how personal his social media back-and-forth got with Speedway Motorsports CEO Marcus Smith.
Oddly enough, Hamlin said he was messaging with Smith in real time, even as they traded barbs back and forth in an argument stemming from recently repaved Sonoma Raceway coming apart during a sports car event this week.
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“Certainly, there were some underlying frustration from my standpoint that I let get the better of me,” Hamlin said on Saturday at Martinsville Speedway. “No doubt about it.
“Certainly, it didn’t need to get personal but it kind of took a turn for that pretty quick. Regrettable from my standpoint but … between the tracks and NASCAR, there’s nearly a half a billion dollars in profit and I hate to see (that teams) are struggling to swim upstream and that’s how they spend their profits.
— Sportsnaut —
UPDATE 4-5-2024: Hamlin and Smith have buried the hatchet, at least on social media.
Smith has deleted his tweets and Hamlin has admitted to the situation getting too personal.
Ill cosign this. I’ll definitely take responsibility for my part in it. It got more personal than it should have for sure. https://t.co/ppcqp0HlGo
— Denny Hamlin (@dennyhamlin) April 5, 2024
ORIGINAL POST 4-5-2024: Denny Hamlin’s disdain for Speedway Motorsports’ reconfiguration and repave track record over the years is well documented and manifested itself once again on social media as Thursday night turned to Friday morning.
Earlier in the week, an SRO sports car event at freshly repaved Sonoma Raceway in California was halted due to numerous sections of the 2.52-mile circuit coming apart during a two-day test session ahead of race weekend.
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Hamlin immediately made his disappointment with Speedway Motorsports public and it received a commensurate public response from company CEO Marcus Smith, the son of company founder and NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee Bruton Smith.
When paving on a budget goes wrong. NWB will be next. https://t.co/pXcqrFCXMW
— Denny Hamlin (@dennyhamlin) April 5, 2024
NWS refers to also recently repaved North Wilkesboro Speedway, which is also owned by Speedway Motorsports. Smith immediately fired back a public response at the veteran Cup Series driver and initiated a contentious and deeply personal back-and-forth.