Denny Hamlin and Speedway Motorsports Inc. CEO Marcus Smith had a major beef start late in the evening on April 5 when the Joe Gibbs Racing driver responded on X to a post about a torn-up section on the Sonoma Raceway, which included a photo with a large chunk of asphalt missing.
The original beef between @dennyhamlin and @MarcusSMI. pic.twitter.com/tlF6W5Q60f
— Kyle Dalton (@kdsportswriter) April 6, 2024
“When paving on a budget goes wrong NWB will be next,” the three-time Daytona 500 champion suggested, referring to North Wilkesboro’s recent repave.
“This is a great post from somebody who doesn’t know all the information,” Smith replied. “Ignorance on display for the world to see! (I will delete this tweet when Denny Hamlin sends me a text or gives me a call directly to ask why this is happening.)”
“You don’t need to delete,” the driver countered. “We’ve seen your reconfig record.”
“Yes we take risks, sometimes they work sometimes they don’t,” the SMI exec responded. “We’ve seen your attempt of the championship as well. When you gave a chance, maybe you could give me some golf tips.”
“Heres your tip,” Hamlin said. “Let someone else run your business before you blow everything your dad gave you.”
“So proud of my dad! Hall of Famer!” Smith admitted. “If he had a Twitter/X account, I don’t think his comment would be family friendly. So listen here, almost NASCAR Champion, you keep working at it and one day you’re gonna get a big trophy! Thanks for the tip!”
Denny Hamlin and Smith Admit Remorse
Less than 12 hours later, Smith addressed the feud and took a dramatically different tone.
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
“Following up on my previous posts, I take a lot of pride in the dedication and hard work our teammates put forth to make @NASCAR the very best it can be and I shouldn’t let social media conversations get personal, so I deleted those posts,” Smith wrote. “@dennyhamlin is a passionate driver and team owner and I’m truly looking forward to seeing him drive for a championship this year. Our team is working hard to fix some pavement issues @racesonoma and we will get it right. Let’s keep the positive momentum going in 2024!”
“Ill cosign this,” Hamlin replied. “I’ll definitely take responsibility for my part in it. It got more personal than it should have for sure.”
Denny Hamlin Makes Surprising Claim About SMI
Following Martinsville, Denny Hamlin naturally addressed the short-track racing issues and being unable to pass — something he’s discussed numerous occasions on his “Actions Detrimental” podcast. But that wasn’t all. He also willingly discussed his feud with Smith and admitted the source of his frustrations were SMI and its investment in the sport.
“We know whenever we go to an SMI track that they’re taking a bulk of the money from the TV revenue,” Hamlin said. “And I know personally how much that I’ve invested in 23XI. I would venture to guarantee you that 23XI has invested more in the sport than SMI has invested in the last 10 years. And we’ve done it in four years. Just one team has invested more in this sport. So there’s a problem there, especially when we get roughly half of what they get on any given weekend.”
Is it true?
Only Hamlin knows. The only thing fans know is the JGR driver is clearly still annoyed by SMI’s portion of the revenue. Until a new agreement on how that revenue is divided between NASCAR, the tracks, and the teams is hammered out, that agitation isn’t likely going to go away.