Win, lose or otherwise, Denny Hamlin will leave Las Vegas at least $75,000 richer than he was upon arrival. He hit a six-figure jackpot on a Buffalo slot machine on Friday night prior to the Pennzoil 400!
The extra money is a nice boost to his bank account amid struggles to find a permanent sponsor.
Hamlin, 44, currently sits seventh in the NASCAR Cup Series standings with 110 points and one top-10 finish. However, his car has looked very different at various points throughout the season. FedEx dropped out as his primary sponsor after 19 years, which left Joe Gibbs Racing to scramble to find a replacement. The No. 11 car was mostly blank prior to the Clash at Bowman Gray but National Debt Relief stepped in at the start of the calendar year to sponsor Hamlin for a few races in the early season. Ampm, a convenience store chain on the West Coast, also agreed to a $10 million sponsorship for events in Sonoma in July and Las Vegas in October.
Although these two partnerships will help to cover the high cost of a NASCAR season, money is still tight. Hamlin sounded the alarm on sponsorship money at the beginning of February.
I mean, it is tough out there. Sponsorship is hard to come by, and certainly, while it is such an important time in our sport to recognize that sponsorship dollars are not flowing like they used to for sure.
Everyone has had to adjust quite a bit, and there are certain aspects that JGR has to price into their pricing as well that is probably tough. I don’t know. It is part of it. Certainly, having one sponsor for 20 years, made things pretty easy and now it is all catching up.
Is it concerning from my end? Maybe a little bit, but it is probably more concerning from JGR’s standpoint.
— Denny Hamlin
The good news is that Hamlin’s income does not rely as much on sponsors as it does on winning. However, that does not mean that a few extra bucks won’t go a long way!
Denny Hamlin arrived to Las Vegas ahead of the Pennzoil 400 on Sunday and immediately hit it big on a game of chance. He won more than $100,000 on a Buffalo slot machine! (Less with taxes but still…)
Not a bad way to start the weekend for the legendary No. 11 car. This could go one of two ways. Either his luck is just getting started and he is in for a big weekend in Las Vegas or he already used all of his luck on the jackpot and Sunday will be rough. Regardless of what happens, Denny Hamlin will leave with a heavier wallet than when he arrived in a time where sponsorship money is hard to come by!