Column: Denny Hamlin’s legacy from the NASCAR lawsuit outweighs any championship he could win

When the 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports v. NASCAR lawsuit was still in its infancy 14 months ago, Jordan Fish, 23XI co-owner Denny Hamlin’s fiancé, sent him a video clip from the film “Moneyball,” when John Henry tells Billy Beane, “The first guy through the wall — he always gets bloody.”

In the movie, Beane, the general manager of the low-budget and championship-starved Oakland Athletics, reconstructed his roster for the 2002 MLB season with methods never before seen in baseball. And although he didn’t get the A’s back to the World Series that year, he changed the game’s way of doing business forever.

Hamlin lived through a similar character arc over the last year. He and 23XI and Front Row were committed to challenging the way NASCAR did business with its teams while also trying to win himself a championship that has eluded him for two decades.

And just like Beane, Hamlin came up short again when it came to taking home the title. But his legacy in NASCAR has been cemented, and teams will owe him and 23XI co-owner Michael Jordan and Front Row owner Bob Jenkins gratitude for years to come.

Last month, Hamlin may have lost the battle (if you consider a championship merely a battle while the lawsuit was happening), but he won the war on Thursday.

Even to say he “won” the war isn’t technically accurate, because the trial of 23XI and Front Row v. NASCAR ended with a settlement. But perhaps the most significant takeaway revealed from Thursday’s settlement is that there will be a permanent charter system. NASCAR Chairman Jim France was hard-set on not allowing this because he felt the charter system should be adaptable to whatever direction NASCAR heads in the future.

A charter in NASCAR is comparable to teams being franchises in other professional sports. There are 36 of them in the NASCAR Cup Series, and it guarantees a car a place in each event while also getting monetary incentives when prize money is awarded after each race.

The charter system was implemented before the 2016 season, and the terms of it ended after the 2024 season. For two years, teams and NASCAR negotiated a renewal of the system, and NASCAR made its offer in September 2024. Thirteen of 15 teams agreed to the terms, although some felt the terms of it were unfair. The two teams that did not sign off on NASCAR’s offer were 23XI and Front Row.

Hamlin and Jordan, the basketball legend, were at the forefront of the lawsuit from the beginning. They were adamant that NASCAR violated the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890, which, in a nutshell, says attempting to monopolize or taking advantage of a monopoly is an illegal business tactic.

23XI never showed any qualms about taking the lawsuit to court. And when December 1 came, the trial began, and there was no turning back.

After eight days of testimonies from NASCAR employees and team personnel, it felt like 23XI and Front Row were more likely to win, and NASCAR, whose leadership’s testimonies were riddled with ambiguous answers about money and the current business model, were not going to come out of the trial without taking a flogging.

On Thursday morning, the attorneys on each side came up with a settlement, and when everyone left the Charlotte, North Carolina, federal courthouse shortly after, faces from both sides of the lawsuit donned smiles. Members of both parties were shaking hands with each other. Years of bitter negotiations finally came to an end.

Many of the Cup Series team owners made statements about how thrilled they are that the lawsuit ended and an agreement was reached. But it was 23XI and Front Row that dared to stand up for the entire Cup garage. They were the ones who risked the survival of their businesses as stock car racing teams and the livelihoods of hundreds of employees.

For that, the teams have 23XI’s Hamlin, Jordan, Jordan’s financial advisor Curtis Polk, and Front Row’s Bob Jenkins to thank. NASCAR’s existence is a great thing because of the positive impact it has had on millions of lives for nearly 80 years, but for those who work in the industry and own teams and create interest in it, being profitable is crucial, and now that important aspect of the racing business has hopefully been corrected for good.

Less than six weeks ago, Hamlin suffered as brutal a championship loss as you could imagine when a caution came out with three laps to go while he was leading the Phoenix finale and the drivers’ standings. He fell short after taking four fresh tires on a pit stop while Kyle Larson took two right sides only to gain track position, and Larson went on to win title No. 2.

He was clearly miserable at the end-of-season banquet two days later and said that he could not even think about being a race car driver at that moment.

He might still be hurting after coming a minute or so away from achieving a goal that’s been more than 20 years in the making. But when he left the courthouse Thursday, he and his 23XI colleagues were celebrating with champagne for the positive changes that are here to stay in NASCAR’s future.

Hamlin, who has 60 career Cup wins, is undoubtedly a NASCAR Hall of Famer — championship on his resumé or not. But his impact will be felt long after his racing days as NASCAR and teams continue to build and maintain fandom around the world for years to come.