Denny Hamlin on why teams rejected NASCAR offer to build ‘illegal’ All-Star cars

Reportedly, NASCAR was going to shove the rule book aside for this year’s All-Star Race, giving teams the opportunity to push their ingenuity to the absolute limit and work outside of the usually rigid parameters for the Next Gen car. Basically, a race with Next Gen cars and parts, but no limit on what teams could do to them. However, this exciting ‘run what you brung’ concept never materialized because the teams were against it.

Denny Hamlin, who competes for Joe Gibbs Racing but also co-owns 23XI Racing, gave some insight into why on his weekly podcast, Actions Detrimental. Hamlin also did his own research, reaching out to other teams to learn more about their reasons while opening up on his own.

A fantastic but expensive show

In the end, it came down to money for most. The cost far outweighed the $1 million dollar prize, but Hamlin admits that it could have resulted in a thrilling show for the fans.

“If you’re just talking to me — the race car driver and the fan — I’m going to say, damn, I wish we had this,” said Hamlin. “This would be fantastic. There could possibly be something that gets learned for the short track package that could make it better. You know, the thought of having cars that are different speeds than each other is fantastic. That means passing will be more plentiful. There are a lot of positives that could come from that.”

But the $1 million dollar question remains: “Everyone wants to go have fun and do all these things, but who is going to pay for it?”

Putting his team owner hat back on, Hamlin then detailed how they would have “destroyed three of our cars to build this car. Under the rules that were kind of put in front of us, you have to use Next Gen parts, but you can do whatever you want to them. So what we’re going to do is destroy every piece and part of that car and make it lighter or something. We’re going to modify it. We’re going to bend the chassis. We’re going to do all types of things that will make it illegal at any other race track that we go to.”

Part of the problem is that $1 million dollars to win is not nearly as attractive as it was 20+ years ago, even without the additional financial burden of modifying existing cars for an exhibition race. Hamlin reiterated how it wouldn’t be worth it, whether one of his 23XI cars went on to win the main event or not. He estimated that costs would be nearly double that of the winner’s purse in the end.

“As a fan, as a driver, I wish we could do it, but under the parameters that were set, it just wasn’t thought out enough,” concluded Hamlin. “It’s not feasible and no team is going to sign up to voluntarily lose millions of dollars.”