HAMPTON, Ga. — All but two of NASCAR’s 15 Cup Series team owners signed a multiyear extension of their charter agreement with the stock car racing sanctioning body Friday night, signaling the potential end to several years of bitter and contentious negotiations.
Multiple team owners told The Athletic that NASCAR had set a deadline of midnight Friday night to sign the agreement, threatening any holdouts with the loss of their existing charters if not. That pushed most of the teams to sign the agreement, with the exception of 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports, multiple team owners told The Athletic on condition of anonymity.
The lengthy standoff ends a long saga for some teams, while it’s now unclear what will happen with the charters owned by 23XI and Front Row. Those teams combined for the ownership of four current charters — similar to franchises in other sports — and both teams are expected to add an additional charter for 2025.
NASCAR had recently ramped up its push to complete the new charter deal, sending teams a proposal last week and setting the Friday deadline with the intent of wrapping up negotiations prior to the start of its Cup Series playoffs, which begin Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Team owners and executives met Tuesday to go over the proposal, with several teams amenable to finalizing a deal even if not every team would sign on. That turned out to be the case, as teams felt they could not risk losing their charters — which can be valued anywhere from $30 million to $50 million, depending on its value — for nothing if they did not sign.
NASCAR declined to comment on the status of negotiations. 23XI “decided not to meet a NASCAR-imposed deadline last night to sign charter agreements for its two cars for 2025-2031,” a team statement from 23XI said Saturday morning. “23XI’s position, as stated in a letter to NASCAR, is that we did not have an opportunity to fairly bargain for a new Charter contract.
“We notified NASCAR what issues needed to be addressed, in writing, at the deadline. We are interested in engaging with constructive discussions with NASCAR to address these issues and move forward in a way that comes to a fair resolution, while strengthening the sport we all love.”
Statement from 23XI ownership pic.twitter.com/z0z5rjRjEP
— 23XI Racing (@23XIRacing) September 7, 2024
23XI, which is co-owned by basketball icon Michael Jordan and NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin, said the team will be “standing firm in our belief that NASCAR should be governed by fair and equitable practices.
23XI driver Bubba Wallace, whose own contract extension remains in limbo until a charter agreement is reached, expressed dismay on Saturday morning in Atlanta.
“My process has been going hand-in-hand with the charter agreement, so it’s frustrating to see where we’re at,” Wallace said, “because that impacts my life and livelihood and everything moving forward for my future.”
The new charter agreement is for seven years with a seven-year option, said people familiar with the negotiations but not authorized to speak publicly. Throughout the process, teams have been adamant that they sought permanent charters — to both assuage concerns and protect their investments that NASCAR could later decide to do away with charters. Having charters in perpetuity was a key tenet for owners, while NASCAR maintained it had no interest in offering permanency.
Though teams did receive a sizable increase in money, many of their other demands appear to have gone unfulfilled.
NASCAR hoped to reach an extension much earlier, with NASCAR leadership often publicly indicating confidence a deal would be reached.
“We’re going to come to a very good result for the race teams and the industry as a whole,” NASCAR president Steve Phelps said in November. “I’ve said that to our race teams and, honestly, anyone who’s listened for the last year. I believe that to be true. Would it be a fair deal? It’ll be a deal that will help the teams with their enterprise value to be more competitive on the racetrack.
“It’s a negotiation, but we’ll end up in a good place. I’m very confident about that.”
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(Photo: Chris Graythen / Getty Images)
