“I will run it but not fund it”: $65M worth Denny Hamlin on his childhood grassroots racetrack Southside Speedway

Denny Hamlin recently revealed his stance on Southside Speedway. The short track in Chesterfield, Virginia, is an important place in Hamlin's journey as a racecar driver as the JGR veteran grew up racing on the 0.33-mile track.

But since the track closed doors in 2020, dark clouds of uncertainty have loomed over its future.

Over the last few years, Hamlin, the co-owner of 23XI Racing with a net worth of $65 million (Celebrity Net Worth) has expressed interest in running the racetrack. However, in a recent episode of Actions Detrimental, he clarified what he's willing to do for the historic racetrack.

As a fan sent in a message praising his podcast, and mentioning they've followed him since his Southside days, Denny Hamlin said:

"I appreciate that review. Cool that you knew about Southside Speedway. Evidently, you watched me run my four-cylinder mini stock around that place for many, many years. Shout out to all the people there in Chesterfield, Virginia. I'd love to bring back Southside. I know you keep asking me. But the state or the city needs to fund it. I'm not going to fund it myself. I will run it but I won't fund it. So get with your local lawmaker on that. [1:07:10]"

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Denny Hamlin had expressed his desire to own and run Southside in 2023

Ahead of the race at Texas in September 2023, Denny Hamlin expressed his desire to own and run the short track. Hamlin said he had met the county and state official earlier that year and his interest is in owning and running the racetrack.

"I would love to own it if I were to run it. We’d have to work around that for sure. It sounds like the county does own it, but again, but if we’re going to put effort and time, I would like to have some kind of stake in the facility," he said as per Short Track Scene.

Hamlin further revealed his next course of action following his admission of wanting to own and run the track. He said he would want to follow up with the county as he revealed his conversations with the officials.

"I basically said to them, ‘We need ‘X’ amount of money to redo this track, really upgrade the facilities, make it super nice,'" he described.

Hamlin revealed that Dale Earnhardt Jr. urged him to go ahead with his plans with the racetrack and he'd bring CARS Tour twice a year to it. The #11 driver claimed there's "a lot of opportunity" at Southside and the state would benefit from it.

The initial deadline for RFPs was October 11 last year, but Hamlin claimed it wasn't the only one as there had been deadlines in the past as well.

But with Denny Hamlin recently urging the locals to talk with lawmakers in Chesterfield about him potentially running the track, it'll be interesting to see where the future of Southside lies.