“Easier than I thought”: Denny Hamlin has a witty reaction to NASCAR official’s criticism of his $2M claim

23XI Racing co-owner Denny Hamlin took a witty jab at NASCAR’s Managing Director of Communications, Mike Forde, after disagreeing over the real costs of the 'run what you brung' All-Star Race. Hamlin argued it would cost over $2 million for a three-car team.

On the Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin explained why teams went against opening up the rules for All-Star weekend. He said a single Next Gen car costs around $300,000, and teams would need to spend more on designing and developing one-off parts that wouldn’t be reusable. Hamlin estimated that the total cost for a three-car team would be around $2 million, which was unsustainable for a $1 million prize for the winner.

On the latest episode of Hauler Talk, Mike Forde pushed back against Denny Hamlin's cost estimates, claiming the All-Star Race could potentially cost teams "zero dollars." Forde refuted several of Hamlin’s claims, clarifying that chassis modifications were not permitted and that teams were still required to use single-source parts, with only specific components of the Next Gen car open to changes.

"Denny talked about how this would cost potentially $2 million if we went ahead and did this. I think his math was off by about $2 million; what actually it could cost is zero dollars, or potentially save teams money." Forde said on the podcast.

"What we presented to the teams is you cannot modify any parts, you cannot build new parts, you cannot create any new parts. Everything still had to be single sourced, but there was a list of things that we were going to allow teams to do." he added.

Denny Hamlin, who has previously taken jabs at Mike Forde on social media, responded sarcastically to Forde’s comments. He wrote on X:

"Oh it cost us nothing to run a raceteam now. Whew, this business is easier than I thought. BTW, Great stats on Sunday! 👍🏻" he wrote in the comments.

Mike Forde also revealed that team representatives raised concerns about 'run what you brung' during a meeting on March 12. He noted that teams couldn't allocate resources to build a one-off car with the Coke 600 and other important races approaching, while some owners were concerned about costs.

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Dale Earnhardt Jr. disagrees with Denny Hamlin's All-Star Race cost analysis

NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. suggested that Denny Hamlin was overstating the cost of building a car for the 'run what you brung' All-Star Race. He said that Hamlin was indirectly pressuring the sanctioning body to increase the event's prize money, which has remained stagnant for over two decades.

In the latest episode of Dale Jr. Download, the 50-year-old JR Motorsports team owner provided his opinion on the All-Star race debate. He said:

"That’s overstating it. I think it would cost the teams some money for sure, but not $2 million. I just don't believe it, I think that’s just a heavy excuse to say, ‘Yeah, this is why I didn’t want to do it’…I think he is overstating the cost to make a point…He’s already mad about the damn purse being $1 Million for 30 years." [3:00 onwards]

Dale Earnhardt Jr. agreed with Denny Hamlin and other team owners' decision, stating that Xfinity Series owners would have done the same. However, he called it a "foolish" decision not to experiment with the next-gen car on short tracks.