The antitrust lawsuit between NASCAR, 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports is at an end, or is it?
Well, the case itself is, sure. However, the legacy of the lawsuit will surely linger on for a while.
There are deep wounds to heal on both sides after what was, at times, a bitter and nasty battle, with each party seemingly having a genuine dislike of the other, despite all the hugs outside court earlier this month.
The sheer number of emails and text messages that came out into the public domain, and the criticism they contained, was particularly brutal, especially when said criticism is coming from within your own team, as 23XI co-owner Denny Hamlin found out.
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Internal Hamlin criticism at 23XI
In text messages and emails, Hamlin was, at one stage, branded a 'child' because of the way he wanted to spend, whilst an internal evaluation of Hamlin's skills and strengths from the CFO of Michael Jordan's business arm sent via email was also scathing.
The review called Hamlin a terrible businessman and questioned what Hamlin really knew about race strategy and the 'nuts and bolts of racing', which is remarkable given he has 721 races in the Cup Series alone under his belt.
"Denny. The positives. Denny is a great driver, one of the best of all time. He is completely driven for 23XI to succeed. He knows more about how to prepare to drive a race and how to execute that almost any other driver," the leaked email read initially.
However, it continued: "The negatives. He does not know as much as he thinks he does about race strategy and the other nuts and bolts of racing. Denny relies on regurgitating what Chris Gabehart says as if it were gospel.
"He is a terrible businessman. He ascribes to the dumb theory that if spend more money, it will translate into wins and speed. This is only true to a small extent. He is always telling the team that money is no object and that he is making the decisions on how to spend it. This pushes the staff to make decisions that are not necessarily the best, but they feel they have to make those decisions.
"Whenever Curtis or I disagree with him, he accuses us of not valuing him, which is very far from the truth, and why we had to have the meeting at the Grove during the sponsor summit last year. His is the only position that matters."
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Hamlin's response
Damning words indeed, and naturally, Hamlin was asked about some of the internal criticism he had faced when the trial concluded earlier this month.
Rather than get confrontational, Hamlin opted for a more philosophical approach, simply shrugging it off as normal in a business relationship.
"It’s a marriage," Hamlin said, via FOX Sports. "In any marriage, you've got to have [those things].
"If I didn't have people having checks and balances on me, then I'd do everything I could to win races.
"And so you always need people within the company to make sure that the business is running properly."
