TALLADEGA, Ala. — With two wild card races looming, an even larger story has the attention of drivers, as 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports announced a lawsuit filed against NASCAR on Oct. 2.
One of the co-owners of 23XI Racing, Denny Hamlin, faced the media first in a press conference. He began by reiterating his commitment to pursuing a championship by putting in his best effort with the No. 11 team.
“When I get in the race car on Sunday, [the team] knows through my actions on the track that I am 100% in it and focused.”
With news of the lawsuit dropping earlier in the week, one of the biggest questions focused on how the garage area would respond to the latest development.
“As far as feedback from around the garage, I feel like the reaction has all been positive on our end,” Hamlin said.
As far as any negative feedback, Hamlin added, “In the end, it’s because you’re threatening status quo, and you’re threatening people’s jobs and things like that. I just hope it’s not seen that way, seeing that this is certainly an opportunity for us to try to promote change in the sport that’s positive for everyone.”
Not only does Hamlin feel this could result in a positive for the sport, but he also believes this will positively impact his on-track performance.
“I feel like certainly on our end, it’s certainly been good for me,” Hamlin added. “This is not like we just decided one day we woke up and this was going to happen. This has been on the plate for a while. Certainly, from my standpoint, it allows me actually more relief to focus on the No. 11 car and everything I’ve got to do there, because now it’s out and it’s done and now there’s other people able to speak on it from the legality standpoint.”
After qualifying, Front Row Motorsports’ Michael McDowell shared similar beliefs that things will continue normally on the team’s end of things.
“No concerns on it impacting performance,” McDowell said. “All that stuff is happening above my pay grade. When you have a goal in front of you, it’s easy to stay focused.”
However, McDowell did make an eye-raising comment.
“I did get a memo before I came here [of] what to not say and talk about, so I don’t know if this fits in it,” McDowell said. “I need to pull up my phone and email.”
McDowell had been asked about his perspective on the lawsuit, given his experience with smaller race teams like Phil Parsons Racing.
“I know there was years that Phil lost hundreds of thousands of dollars doing what he was doing.”
Now at Front Row Motorsports, McDowell added that, “(Team owner) Bob Jenkins has and continues to spend a tremendous amount of his own money. Every time we ask for more…. it’s coming out of Bob’s pocket.
“I feel like I can’t answer your question all the way, but I can answer it enough to know, there’s not a team in the garage, and you can quote this, that’s more efficient than Front Row Motorsports. There’s nobody spending what we spend and performing how we perform. Nobody.
“If he has to spend his own money, there’s a problem.”
Playoff contender Tyler Reddick, a driver for 23XI Racing, had much less to say about the lawsuit.
Asked if he felt uncomfortable in the situation or felt that he had a potential target on his back, his response was a quick and simple no.
“Not at all. Not even.”
Reddick only shared, “[the team] let us know what was going on, basically along the same lines of what you guys have heard from Curtis (Polk) and the lawyer.”
While 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports are the only two involved in the suit, the rest of the teams — and the drivers — are definitely paying attention.
“It looked like you guys had a really quiet week,” Alex Bowman joked. “It’s just been interesting to read everything, right?
“Everybody’s just got such different perspective on the sport. That has been the most interesting thing for me. Obviously, beyond that, I just try to drive a race car. It’s been a good week for reading at least, for sure.”
Joey Logano has also been reading up this week.
“I know what you know,” Logano said. “I can’t say I know any more than that.”
As for right now, Logano is more focused on securing his third title.
“We have a championship we’re trying to win right now,” Logano said. “We’re 100% focused on that. I understand this is huge for our sport no matter what happens. It’s obviously big because we haven’t seen it before. But I’m not close enough to even know what’s going on or really even know the truth behind any of that.
“Does it affect me? I’m sure some way, somehow, someday it probably will, but at the moment there’s nothing that I can do either way. So I just kind of let it roll and see how the cards fall and see what happens.”
William Byron has hopes to see NASCAR grow from this process, however it ends.
“I think in the long term, I’d like to see our sport be more prosperous,” Byron said. “I feel like watching other professional sports and where we could be, I am excited for that, so hopefully that comes to fruition.
“I just feel like this sport has a lot of opportunity. It’s very entertaining, I have a lot of friends that watch, and I just think we could stand to continue to evolve.”
Another Hendrick driver, Kyle Larson, had another perspective on how driver salaries could be impacted.
“I hadn’t really thought about it much until all of this has come out,” Larson said. “I think we’re probably one of the only sports, if not the only sport, where athlete salary has gone down in the last couple decades. Where I think you look at [it] yearly, most athletes’ salaries and stuff are going up.”
To help salaries for drivers and team members overall, Larson offered the following insight:
“I think the teams have to make a lot more money to make it viable.”
While the legal drama plays out, drivers have plenty more drama to worry about on the racetrack, as a full 40-car field will tackle the high banks of Talladega Superspeedway in Sunday’s (Oct. 6) YellaWood 500.
Caleb began sports writing in 2023 with The Liberty Champion, where he officially covered his first NASCAR race at Richmond in the spring. While there, Caleb met some of the guys from Frontstretch, and he joined the video editing team after graduating from Liberty University with degrees in Strategic Communications and Sports Journalism. Caleb currently work full-time as a Multi-Media Journalist with LEX 18 News in Lexington, Kentucky and contributes to Frontstretch with writing and video editing. He's also behind-the-scenes or on camera for the Happy Hour Podcast, live every Tuesday night at 7:30!
Nascar gave front row motorsports 2 free charters in 2017. I didn’t know Nascar gave anything away for free.
23xi on the other hand paid $4 million for its first charter in 2021 and $13.5 for its second charter in 2022. Did someone really just pay $40 million for a charter recently. lololol Now Nascar saved 23xi some money the other day. It blocked 23xi from buying that 3rd charter it agreed to buy from SHR in August. I guess Denny and MJ should have paid for it quicker. Or maybe Nascar did save them millions.
Its always been a fact that any kind of auto racing is expensive and not a profitable experience. All the owners want to fund their race teams with other peoples money that is what dale jr. Is waiting on. Someone else to fund his hobby he has millions of dollars to fund his own race teams but he knows that it is not a investment when you are going to lose money every year. So if you want to race you better have deep pockets or alot of rich friends that have business to fund your passions. A good gig if you can get it
There is no way the drivers EVER say what they really want to say!