After years of protests, NASCAR ultimately turned a deaf ear. Over the past year, Cup Series race teams have strengthened their demands around the charter agreement. With the current deal’s expiry date approaching soon, four crucial demands were made: higher revenue share, bigger business slices, stronger executive power, and permanent charters. Although the higher-ups yielded slightly on the first point, the other demands were largely ignored.

Two teams–23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports–have defiantly stood against the draconian authority. What is more shocking is that these teams decided to protest despite knowing the enormous risks at hand. This impasse is likely to snowball further, according to a NASCAR insider.

A huge rift opened up between NASCAR and the teams

Although Jim France, NASCAR’s CEO since 2018, does not frequent the limelight, people know about his mindset. They consider him a traditionalist, not straying far from how his father (founder Bill France Sr.) and brother (longtime chief Bill France Jr.) would have done things. France stayed true to this reputation last week when a 6-hour ultimatum was issued to race teams. A new charter deal, summed up in 105 pages, had to be signed by midnight on Friday if race teams hoped to retain their 2025 charters. “They put a gun to our head and we had to sign,” one team owner anonymously claimed.

So while 13 out of 15 race teams signed the deal, two inevitably chose to shun such oppressive behavior. Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan have been very vocal about an equitable charter deal. So despite floating possibilities of keeping a third charter in 2025, they took the risk for 23XI Racing. Yet according to expert Eric Estepp, Front Row Motorsports’ defiant stance was surprising. This team already bought one of Stewart-Haas Racing’s charters for $20-25 million. Clearly, NASCAR’s ridiculous behavior was too much for Bob Jenkins, FRM owner, to accept.

As 23XI stated that it “did not have an opportunity to fairly bargain for a new Charter contract,” Jenkins echoed the same issue. He opined how absurd NASCAR’s timeline was: “It just was tough to get a 105-page contract at 6 o’clock on Friday night and then be asked to sign it by midnight. We just didn’t feel like it was the right thing to do. I don’t have anything against the guys who did sign it. I know a lot of people were uncomfortable but felt like they had to.” Not to mention NASCAR’s flagrant ignorance of some demands: “In areas where we had hoped to move the ball forward and do some things, we actually regressed and it’s just been tough.”

So this dramatic face-off is not likely to wear off soon, considering the gravity of the situation. Estepp even hinted that it may reach the courtroom.

Are legal issues incoming for the series?

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It is increasingly clear that we are long past the casual debating stage. Now Denny Hamlin’s team and Bob Jenkins’ team are getting serious. Earlier this season, the Race Team Alliance hired Jeffrey Kessler, an antitrust lawyer with experience working for the NFL. Kessler’s job was to streamline the delicate negotiations between NASCAR and the teams. However, since that effort went down the drain, Eric Estepp believes this charter deal drama may take a serious turn.

He said Hamlin and Jenkins may soon visit a courtroom. “Maybe 23XI and Front Row have some grounds…Perhaps they could challenge that NASCAR is acting as a monopoly.” Yet some caveats remain, as Estepp continued: “Taking things to court would be expensive, likely time-consuming, extremely contentious.” Even Bob Pockrass shed some light on this possibility. “My guess is they feel they have a good legal standing that any revoking of their charters wouldn’t stand up in court or at least wouldn’t be worth it to nascar to try to prevail in open court.”

Whichever path this dilemma takes, things currently look hazy. We can only wait for further updates about this charter deadlock to know how this all ends.