![\"Denny](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/GettyImages-2261120749.jpg\")
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Denny Hamlin weighed in on the fallout of the NASCAR anti-trust lawsuit.<\/p>\n
Prior to the start of the 2026 NASCAR<\/a> season, the focus of the sport was within the walls of a North Carolina courtroom. The anti-trust lawsuit against NASCAR filed by Cup Series teams 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports came to a head in a December trial.<\/p>\n Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin was one of the key figures involved in the lawsuit as a co-owner of 23XI Racing. After his team won Sunday\u2019s Daytona 500 with Tyler Reddick, the driver of the #11 addressed the media<\/a> in the wake of the legal battle.<\/p>\n Denny Hamlin described trial as a \u201cwake-up call\u201d<\/p>\n In October 2024, 23XI and Front Row filed a lawsuit<\/a> against NASCAR and its CEO Jim France after failing to reach a new charter agreement. The teams accused the sport of monopolistic practices and for violating the Sherman Antitrust Act.<\/p>\n The case ultimately went to trial and concluded after nine days last December, with the two sides coming to a settlement. Among the terms of the settlement<\/a> included \u201cevergreen\u201d charters for the teams and an increase in team revenue.<\/p>\n Sunday\u2019s Daytona 500 was the first points-paying race since the lengthy legal dispute concluded. When speaking in the media center, Hamlin went into detail on how he feels NASCAR\u2019s sanctioning body has handled the situation since the settlement.<\/p>\n \u201cI think December was a wake-up call. I think the conversations since then has been a lot of self-reflection, in my opinion, from NASCAR. I think that they would\u2019ve done things differently had they had the opportunity to, but we knew that we needed to stick up for what we believed was right,\u201d Hamlin said.<\/p>\n The legal battle spanned 14 months, but Hamlin\u2019s confidence about the situation never hindered as he believed his side was in the right.<\/p>\n \u201cI said all along I was very confident for the last year, because I knew what the facts were,\u201d Hamlin said.<\/p>\n Moving forward, Hamlin is hopeful the sport returns to its identity.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to now figure out how we can get the sport back where it was decades ago,\u201d Hamlin said.<\/p>\n NASCAR has returned to its roots in one way in 2026 as they changed how a champion is decided. Ahead of this season, NASCAR did away with the elimination style format and brought back The Chase<\/a>.<\/p>\n Denny Hamlin\u2019s 23XI Racing team won the Daytona 500 with Tyler Reddick<\/p>\n As a driver, Hamlin was gunning for his fourth win in the Daytona 500. When the checkered flag flew, he was a winner as an owner as he and Michael Jordan\u2019s 23XI Racing team was victorious with Tyler Reddick<\/a>.<\/p>\n As the field worked off turn four and headed for the checkered flag, Reddick\u2019s #45 got a push from teammate Riley Herbst in the #35, propelling him past Chase Elliott\u2019s #9 for the win.<\/p>\n Bubba Wallace took eighth place in the #23 23XI Racing Toyota, while Herbst posted an 11th-place finish. For Reddick, it was his first Daytona 500 win in his seventh attempt.<\/p>\n It was Reddick\u2019s ninth career victory in the NASCAR Cup Series and his first since\u00a0 Homestead-Miami in October 2024.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tJohn Breeden<\/a> John Breeden is a NASCAR contributor at Heavy Sports. He has five years of sports journalism experience. He graduated from James Madison University in May of 2022 with a degree in media arts and design. John is also a sports reporter for the Daily News-Record in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Previously, John was a sports writer for JMU’s The Breeze and a NASCAR content writer for Sportskeeda. More about John Breeden<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on NASCAR\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Denny Hamlin weighed in on the fallout of the NASCAR anti-trust lawsuit. Prior to the start of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":477807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":["post-477806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=477806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/477807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}