Denny Hamlin addresses 23XI's sponsor concerns amid NASCAR charter standoff - "We're going to make sure no one is adversely affected"

Ahead of the Bass Pro Shops Night race, Denny Hamlin discussed 23XI Racing's sponsor concern amid the ongoing standoff with the NASCAR charter. The Toyota team owned by Hamlin and NBA legend Michael Jordan recently refused to comply with the charter negotiations as they felt that they had not been given a fair deal.

In a recent media interaction, Fox Sports' Bob Pockrass inquired about the primary focus of the 23XI Racing sponsor summit. He specifically asked whether the team’s ongoing charter negotiation or their qualification for the later playoff rounds was the more pressing concern. Here's what the Joe Gibbs Racing driver said in response:

"It was a little bit of both certainly, but we were really strong in our messaging that nothing is changing. From our employee standpoint to our sponsor standpoint, going forward, what battles we have off the racetrack is on ownership, and we're going to make sure that no one is adversely affected by that," he said.

23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports are the only two teams that have yet to finalize the charter proposal, both having missed the NASCAR-imposed deadline. Here's what a statement released by 23XI said:

"23XI's position, as stated in a letter to NASCAR, is that we did not have an opportunity to fairly bargain for a new charter contract..."

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"It's an unfortunate situation" - Denny Hamlin on the charter fiasco

In an episode of his podcast, Action Detrimental, Denny Hamlin discussed his decision to reject NASCAR’s newly proposed charter agreement. He expressed frustration with the team’s ‘crazy timeline’ and argued that NASCAR’s imposition of the charter was inappropriate.

Really, not gonna comment a whole lot further than what was said in my media availability, which was a whole lot of nothing. Just because this is a serious situation and the statement that 23XI put out accurately summed it all up," the 43-year-old said [at 8:18].

"Curtis Polk had a few media members ask him questions yesterday which he answered, I would just kind of echo those statements. It's certainly an unfortunate situation. We were just put under a crazy timeline and just thought that it was not appropriate and decided to stand up and say, this is not right," he added.

Hamlin is currently competing against his teammate, Tyler Reddick, in their quest for a first Cup Series championship this season.