While there have been varying reports on how talks between the race teams and NASCAR are going as the two parties attempt to lock in a Charter agreement for the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season and beyond, Denny Hamlin described the talks as, “Stagnant,” during Wednesday’s NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs Media Day in Charlotte.
.@DennyHamlin described the charter talks as, “stagnant,” and that he was also frustrated that the sanctioning body didn’t have a representative present the regular season championship trophy to @TylerReddick as they have done in the past. #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/eHPAmvQzOb
— Toby Christie (@Toby_Christie) September 4, 2024
The story of how the talks are proceeding does shift wildly depending on who you ask and what side of the talks the person that you’re talking to is on. But the consistent theme of the chatter within the industry is that it seems NASCAR is happy with the latest drafts of the proposed agreement, while the race teams are not.
When asked what needs to happen to spark the progression of the talks, Hamlin stated, “One side will have to wake up and be reasonable. That’s all.”
Hamlin clarified that the side that needs to wake up would be that of the sanctioning body.
Rumblings from within the industry this past weekend at Darlington Raceway suggested that NASCAR had a target of completing the Charter Agreement this week, but many from the race team side of things, Hamlin included, believe the two sides are still far too far apart to strike a deal at this time.
“Of course, they want it to, but the truth is they keep going in the wrong direction,” Hamlin explained.
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver and co-owner of the 23XI Racing team says that he’s sure there are some team owners that would happily accept the latest Charter agreement draft, which was sent to teams from NASCAR in the last few weeks, but reiterated any team with business sense would agree the deal laid out for the teams is, “unreasonable.”
With that, unless something drastically changes, it appears that the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs are set to begin without an ending in sight for the issue that has drug on behind the scenes for the last couple of years, the extension of the Team Charter Agreement. If the racing product is the main attraction, the Charter negotiations have been a sideshow in the traveling circus that is NASCAR for the last couple of seasons. And NASCAR has downplayed the gravity of the situation and expressed that a deal is near all season.
Now, we’re here.
While they’re miles apart today, Hamlin feels a deal between the teams and NASCAR could be reached during the 10-race Playoff schedule, but he says it would take something happening that has seemed abundantly clear isn’t happening all along.
“Yeah, absolutely, it could [get done during the Playoffs],” Hamlin stated. “But, again, someone will have to wake up and have a completely different mindset and I just don’t know if that is going to be possible. What happens if the season ends? Then, we retain all of our rights.”
While on the surface it’s shocking to see NASCAR and the teams flying so dangerously close to the sun as far as reaching the end of the 2024 season without a deal in place, Hamlin admits that he saw the writing on the wall that talks would get taken to the last opportune moment all along.
“Oh, yeah, I had a feeling this was going to go all the way to the 11th hour for sure,” Hamlin said. “And there’s just been a lot of stall tactics that have been in play and here we are.”
If February 2025 rolls around and a deal isn’t in place by the start of the NASCAR Cup Series season, Hamlin says the teams will retain their rights, and will still — at least to his knowledge — be eligible to field cars in the NASCAR Cup Series. But if that happens, the Team Charters, which many teams such as Hamlin’s 23XI Racing paid millions of dollars for, would become worthless relics of a past era in NASCAR.
While teams would be able to continue racing, the question would become, would they even want to?
Hopefully, the two sides can come together, and we never have to learn the answer to that question, but buckle in, folks. It seems that we’re heading into uneasy, and unprecedented times within the sport of NASCAR.
