How Two NASCAR Stars Inspired Me, and How They Can Inspire You

Photo by Adam Relkin

Contributing Writer

Adam Relkin

To Mark Martin and Denny Hamlin, no kept coming up as an answer for wanting to change NASCAR for the greater good. Both never gave up and went out of their way to overcome incredible odds to make a change that has left the sport in a more positive light for 2026 and beyond. 

I’ve been a NASCAR fan since I was six years old and have always loved the sport being a part of my life. After I had started watching, I noticed however that things were starting to go downhill over time. A decline in viewership and track attendance. The sport is not a talking point much outside of my house, especially since I was a kid growing up in a town north of New York City. Far from the sport's main market, the Southeastern U.S. In fact, the entire New England region has only one date on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule being at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, NH. It took until 2025 for the state of Connecticut to hold its first NASCAR National Series race since 1970 when the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series (NASCAR’s third tier series), made their inaugural trip to Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Conn. 

Some of the issues that fans and those in the industry had issues with included a controversial playoff format first introduced in 2014 and an ineffective business model of the sport. While the sport continued to rake in profits, teams in the sport would struggle to break even financially and operate at net losses and have to rely on sponsorship deals to stay alive. However, two racing legends who are well respected amongst fans, drivers and many in the industry did something that few thought could succeed. 

Mark Martin, of Arkansas, scored 40 wins in his NASCAR Cup Series career spanning over 30 years. He may never have won a championship, but he was a fan favorite driving for legendary team owners such as Jack Roush and Rick Hendrick, among others, throughout his career. He retired in 2013, but remained a fan of the sport and was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2017. A controversial ending to the 2024 NASCAR season saw Connecticut’s Joey Logano score his third Cup Series championship. Logano was 12^th in a full season long format (NASCAR has not used such since 2003) and had an average finish of 17.1 the lowest for a champion in series history. NASCAR saw the outrage amongst fans and began to consider changing the format after being against doing so. 

NASCAR then formed a 30–40 member committee that would meet every few months to discuss and come up with changes to the format for the long term. The committee included NASCAR executives, drivers (current and retired), media journalists and personalities, team owners, TV executives and others. By this point, Martin had started to gain notoriety for complaining online about the championship format and other issues in the sport, but he refused to hold back because he was passionate. 

He may have been the only one raising his hand and mouth in support of a full-season format in the first meeting, but as further meetings occurred, his activism led to more hands being raised. He wanted to be a voice and a platform for the sport's fans, who he believed wanted a full-season championship. While the first two meetings made Martin feel less optimistic about getting the format, he did later suggest returning to NASCAR’s 10-race “Chase” format instead as a compromise, which was used from 2004-2013 with no eliminations or rounds encompassing the final 10 races of the season. 

When they did settle on the format, Martin felt like it was the biggest victory in his life, knowing he was able to get NASCAR to make a bold move, even if it wasn’t a full season. 

“The fans win in this deal because even though they didn’t get what they wanted in it, they get a lot more than what they would’ve gotten if they stayed quiet,” Martin said in an interview on Dirty Mo Media podcast The Teardown. 

During NASCAR’s announcement of The Chase returning, NASCAR President Steve O’Donnell said, “What Mark did was, he got us to a position of what’s the right balance, and the balance between those who like the playoff and those that like that full season points and we believe we’ve struck that balance, we’ve got the best of both worlds where every race matters.” 

Ben Kennedy, a former NASCAR driver and current Executive Vice President and Chief Venue & Racing Innovations Officer for the sport also said that if not for Martin, the sport wouldn’t have made such a bold change to the format. 

Being a voice for change can always go a long way if you don’t give up or stop, but what about suing your entire sport that you love to make change? Well, that can work too. Denny Hamlin has competed full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series since 2006. Hamlin has a resume of 61 wins, including three Daytona 500s and three Southern 500s, and is now a team owner in the sport, co-owning 23XI Racing with NBA legend Michael Jordan. Like Martin, he has not won a championship despite his record. 

After over a year of failed negotiations regarding an extension of NASCAR’s Charter System (the sports franchising system, like other sports), NASCAR coerced all the teams into signing a new deal or risk losing their charters. 23XI and another team, Front Row Motorsports owned by Bob Jenkins, refused to sign, viewing the terms of the deal as unfair and antitrust, which led to both filing a lawsuit against NASCAR in Oct. 2024. Both teams also cited the terms as economically unviable for survival in the sport. Hamlin, leading up to the lawsuit, had been very vocal about the need for the charter system to become permanent and advocated for other things in the sport in general such as over development of NASCAR’s Next Gen Car, racing etiquette and the Damaged Vehicle Policy. He had voiced this on his own podcast, Actions Detrimental, which began in early 2023. 

Hamlin also mentioned this before on the podcast that he does this because he loves the sport and cares about making it grow and getting the audience that it had when he was a rookie in 2006. He filed his lawsuit with that intention. Leading up to the lawsuit trial and hearings, both teams also had to fight to keep their charters through a preliminary injunction. They succeeded in December 2024, but a successful appeal from NASCAR in June 2025 resulted in their charters being taken away. Both teams ran unchartered from July until the end of the season. Efforts to settle the case before trial failed many times and the case went to trial in December 2025. After eight days of trial and calamity, both parties settled the case, Hamlin and NASCAR CEO Jim France were seen hugging each other, despite France staunchly opposed to altering the charter deal. 

The settlement included permanent charters, which were the main cause of the lawsuit, more say in decisions made by NASCAR, a share in international revenue for the first time, and a share in intellectual property rights. Hours after the settlement was announced, Hamlin posted on X (Twitter) where he said, “Standing up isn’t easy, but progress never comes from staying silent. The reward is in knowing you changed something.”

As both Martin and Hamlin in the last year were able to make accomplishments in the sport that few thought they would succeed, this gives more pathways towards change if you keep talking. They both stood their ground and didn’t want to make a change for themselves, but for the greater good. Following in their footsteps, there are so many things you could accomplish that others will doubt you on. Be adamant about what you believe in, and always stand your ground.