NASCAR garage reacts to lawsuit: ‘It’s another edition of the soap opera’

TALLADEGA, Ala. — As Denny Hamlin was digesting the reaction to his race team filing an antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR this week, fiancée Jordan Fish sent him a clip from the film “Moneyball.” “The first guy through the wall — he always gets bloody,” the actor depicting Boston Red Sox owner John Henry says in the film. “It’s not like just one day we woke up and said, ‘This is going to happen,'” said Hamlin, who drives for Joe Gibbs Racing, before qualifying eighth for Sunday’s NASCAR playoff race at Talladega Superspeedway. GO DEEPER Gluck: For Michael Jordan, it got personal, and now he could forever change NASCAR “I’d like to see our sport be more prosperous,” Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron said. “We’re probably one of the only sports, if not the only sport, where athlete salaries have gone down in the last couple decades,” Hendrick driver Kyle Larson said. “It’s a crazy time to be in NASCAR, but I stand behind my team 100 percent, and we’ll see where it takes us.” McDowell, who won the pole position for Sunday’s race, said he was confident there was no more lean and efficient organization than Front Row — and yet team owner Bob Jenkins still has had to put “millions and millions and millions” of dollars into the team to be even remotely competitive.