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Former NASCAR Boss Insinuates Negative Influence of “Superteam” Hendrick Motorsports in Sensational Reveal to Dale Earnhardt Jr

Published 11/17/2022, 10:15 AM EST

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There has always been a power struggle between teams in NASCAR. Everyone wants their say to be heard to make gains for themselves in this cutthroat sport. Recently, during the season finale of the ‘Dale Jr Download’, former NASCAR boss Brian France explained how he witnessed a negative influence from the major stakeholders and superteams during NASCAR’s decision-making situations.

France stated, “In today’s system that isn’t really, that person really couldn’t exist even if they were, even if you wanted them to. There’s just too many stakeholders that have a very loud voice. You just can’t kind of, believe me when I was coming through I would have loved to have had that kind of a, you know, platform to run around it.”

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“But that just wasn’t who I was anyway. But even if it was, we were getting to see, once you bring in people that have it, they’re vested in there with you and their livelihoods are at stake.”

“These teams get built out to super teams and these sprawling complexes and network television spending billions of Dollars, then you can’t just say, Well, the wind blew today, and I’m going this way. You just can’t quite do that. You have to have more of a consensus.”

“That doesn’t mean that you can’t put your foot down and we do, NASCAR does and we’ll make tough decisions, but there’s gonna be more pushing and shoving now. That’s just the way it is.

Who was Brian France’s super team remark aimed at?

The speculation points to Hendrick Motorsports, mostly, since they are already known as one of the biggest power teams in the sport. Another reason to think that France’s comments were aimed at Hendrick Motorsports is that every time HMS drivers wiggled themselves into trouble, it seemed that Rick Hendrick was able to overturn the judgment without any problem.

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USA Today via Reuters

Even this season, when William Byron decided to purposefully spin Denny Hamlin out under caution, and later citing that he did so on purpose. NASCAR soon handed Byron a 25 points duck and a $50,000 fine. It seemed like there was no walking out of this. However, a few days later it was reported that Hendrick Motorsports was able to win their appeal and changed the structure of the penalty.

Instead of the 25 points duck, he was just asked to pay the double amount of the initially awarded fine. Many had argued that if this was any other team, then the story would have been entirely different.

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Hendrick Motorsports has ever so often flexed its power over the sport, throughout the years and every time they seem to get the upper hand in the deal. One may call it to be favoritism or what Brian France explained about “super teams.”

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Written by:

Srijan Mandal

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Srijan Mandal is a NASCAR author at EssentiallySports. He is currently pursuing his Master’s in Journalism and has been writing for his own blog as well, covering NASCAR, F1, F2, W Series, MotoGP, DTM, IndyCar, WRC, and WEC. Following motorsports for more than a decade, he has become a devout supporter of McLaren Racing, Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Bubba Wallace, Sir Lewis Hamilton, and Ayrton Senna.
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Edited by:

Pritam Priyedarshi