Racing without a charter is possible, but it would be “financially tough for sure,” as Denny Hamlin admitted. 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports are the two Cup Series teams that risk this precarious future. Their defiant stance against NASCAR’s flash charter agreement has reached nowhere. Yet Hamlin’s fold has already tightened its bond with Bubba Wallace.

The No. 23 Toyota driver barely missed the playoffs two weeks ago, although his performance has been better. But Wallace’s good runs and 23XI Racing extending its support for him may not bring smiles to his face. After all, a charterless future has less growth and prospects.

Bubba Wallace’s extension does very little

If you want to field race cars in NASCAR, charters are paramount. Financially, they make a huge difference—the charters guarantee starting spots in the field and also a payout based on racing every week. Charterless cars or ‘open’ cars earn less than a third of what a charter team makes for coming to a race.

The impasse between 23XI Racing and NASCAR complicates Bubba Wallace’s future, as he admitted. “It’s frustrating to see where we’re at because that impacts my life and livelihood and everything moving forward for my future.”

So Bubba Wallace would probably continue to be frustrated even after his multi-year contract extension with the team. When NASCAR expert Bob Pockrass shared this news on X, EssentiallySports journalist Chintan Devgania was curious if 23XI had indeed reached a deal with the series. However, to Wallace’s dismay, Pockrass shared some concerning thoughts. “I would not read into the Bubba Wallace contract extension as meaning 23XI signed the charter deal. If anything, maybe had to tweak some contract language.”

Nonetheless, 23XI’s renewed faith in Bubba Wallace makes sense. When Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan formed the team in 2020, he was the first driver—and made jaws drop with twin victories at Talladega (2021) and Kansas (2022).

Last year Bubba Wallace made the playoffs, and this year Wallace owns 10 top tens and 5 top fives—his career-best. Besides, he is the perfect driver with whom sponsors want to be associated, like McDonalds or the US Air Force. “We are thrilled to enter into this new partnership with 23XI Racing and to once again have Bubba Wallace as our Air Force driver,” is what the official statement from the US Air Force came as Bubba joined 23XI.

But all this would make sense once NASCAR acknowledges it. Yet 23XI’s stance is important for the sport as a whole. Even FRM, its partner in crime, believes so.

Two teams spearheading change within NASCAR

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Over the past two years, the Race Team Alliance has harped on its demands. All across the NASCAR Cup garage, teams clamored for crucial changes like greater media revenue slices or permanent charters. However, those mostly fell on deaf ears, and the sanctioning body dropped an ultimatum to either sign the deal or get off the ship.

While most were silenced by this draconian move, 23XI Racing and FRM decided it was too ‘repressive’ and thus held out. “Whatever we have to do to protect our rights is what we’ll do,” 23XI co-owner Curtis Polk firmly said.

Even FRM owner Bob Jenkins felt strange about NASCAR’s authoritarian stance. Knowing executives like Steve Phelps and Steve O’Donnell personally, Jenkins was surprised. Yet he kept a clear head and agrees with 23XI about achieving what is right for the sport. “In areas where we had hoped to move the ball forward and do some things, we actually regressed and it’s just been tough. I think it’s been a concerted effort to pull back a lot of the teams’ rights as far as governance and we just feel like it was kind of repressive.”

He added, “It’s just we just need a contract that works for everybody because that’s ultimately how the sport is going to succeed and we need to figure a way to make the sport bigger, not keep it small and not keep the teams where they are powerless. And so that’s all our goals ever.”

Evidently, things do look bleak for these two teams, as NASCAR hasn’t reacted to their negotiations as of yet. Only time will tell how this situation will develop.