NASCAR: Denny Hamlin makes bold claim about driver salaries

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin made the bold claim that NASCAR drivers deserve pay comparable to NBA and NFL players.

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin, 36, who drives the #11 Toyota in the NASCAR Cup Series, recently made comments about how he feels NASCAR drivers are underpaid.

Hamlin has driven full-time in the Cup Series since 2006, and he has never driven for a team other than Joe Gibbs Racing. In 427 career races, he has 31 wins, 129 top 5 finishes, 212 top 10 finishes and 24 pole position starts. He is arguably the best active driver in the Cup Series who has never won a championship.

But, as you can read below, Hamlin was referring to being underpaid in relation to athletes in other sports, as NASCAR drivers do still make millions of dollars per year. In fact, the 2010 Cup Series runner-up had a net worth of $30 million himself in 2013, which isn’t a small amount by any stretch of the imagination.

Hamlin wasn’t exactly complaining about NASCAR drivers’ salaries. He was more so calling into question why NASCAR drivers don’t make as much money as athletes in other sports do when NASCAR is equally as demanding if not more demanding than other sports and is by far more risky.

Here is what Hamlin had to say about NASCAR drivers’ salaries.

"“We’re way underpaid as race car drivers. There’s no doubt, doing what we do, the schedule that we have and the danger that we incur every single week, NASCAR drivers should be making NBA, NFL money.”“I’m sure this will be in some headline somewhere where Denny says drivers aren’t paid enough, but I’m basing it off all other sports. I’m not including myself. I’m including the back half of the field — those drivers are risking the same amount I am and they should be paid a hell of a lot more.”“There’s got to be a reset, and it doesn’t come from the drivers. “It comes from NASCAR helping the teams survive on a better basis…There just has to be different revenue-sharing.”"

Call Hamlin selfish if you please, but he has a point. NBA and NFL players make money amounts that are insanely higher than the amounts made by NASCAR drivers, and basketball and football are nowhere near as risky as racing is.