Denny Hamlin wants NASCAR drivers to have higher salaries like NBA, NFL players

Amidst a time when many NASCAR teams are facing belt tightening due to the changed economic climate within the sport, Denny Hamlin thinks NASCAR should redistribute its revenue with drivers and teams receiving a greater share.

Currently tracks receive 65 percent of television rights fees, with teams receiving 25 percent and NASCAR 10 percent. That distribution formula is how NASCAR divides its record television contract with Fox and NBC that calls for $8.2 billion to be paid over the length of the 10-year deal.

But Hamlin would like to see less money going toward the tracks and a larger slice of the financial pie going toward the teams, many of which are having to cut budgets due to a decrease in corporate sponsorship.

“The pie has to be shifted for sure,” Hamlin told reporters Tuesday, via NBC Sports. “The TV dollars coming into NASCAR is higher than it’s ever been, but we’re seeing fewer and fewer teams, and it just can’t survive. So it economically doesn’t make sense. The pie, the amount of TV money that the race teams share, has to go up, in my opinion.”

Almost universally organizations have faced a sponsorship shortage, with several either downsizing or outright folding over the past few years. That has prompted owners to begin slashing driver salaries, resulting in several veteran drivers losing their rides and being replaced by younger drivers who will take a smaller salary.

Kurt Busch, Matt Kenseth, and Danica Patrick are among notable veterans who have yet to solidify their 2018 plans. Dale Earnhardt Jr., who is retiring at the end of the current season, said in August younger drivers entering the Cup Series now can expect to earn a “fraction” of what drivers made a decade ago.

But Hamlin doesn’t think teams cutting driver salaries is the answer to better financial stability. In fact, he says drivers should be making more money due to the risks they face — especially compared to what players in stick-and-ball team sports are making.

"We're way underpaid as race car drivers," Hamlin said, via ESPN.com "There's no doubt, doing what we do, the schedule that we have and the danger that we incur every single week, NASCAR drivers should be making NBA, NFL money.

"I'm sure this will be in some headline somewhere where Denny says drivers aren't paid enough, but I'm basing it off all other sports. I'm not including myself. I'm including the back half of the field — those drivers are risking the same amount I am and they should be paid a hell of a lot more."

NASCAR has instituted several cost-saving measures, but more needs to be done, Hamlin said. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver would like to see a financial model where teams are able to operate solely off race purses, with any corporate sponsorship an added bonus.

“And I get it, it’s the way it’s been done for 50, 60 years, but the economics of sports have changed since then, and I believe there’s got to be a reset, and it doesn’t come from drivers,” Hamlin said, via NBC Sports. “It comes from NASCAR switching and helping teams survive on a better basis. You’re going to get a better product on the racetrack. Listen, we don’t want only six race teams to be in NASCAR five years from now, but that’s the way it’s heading.

“Because ultimately what do we want to see in NASCAR? We want to see teams be able to fund race cars without sponsors being on the side of it. We need to keep this sport healthy.”