The charter debate is still ongoing. However, NASCAR had aimed to wrap up talks for a new charter system before the playoffs started. It seems unlikely. The old system, from 2016, has been getting a lot of flak because it doesn’t offer teams a permanent spot. This makes it hard for them to find long-term investors.

However, there is some update on the charter front. According to a report from Sports Business Journal, some NASCAR Cup Series teams are getting ready to sign a new deal with NASCAR that will last from 2025 to 2031. This deal is called the governing charter agreement. Some teams might sign it by the end of this weekend, but others might wait and keep talking. Although pioneers in the debate, Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan seem to be firm on their demands.

The deal is for seven years with an option for another seven, so teams signing now won’t get the permanent charters they were hoping for. Although the new agreement should boost their share of media rights revenue, there’s been a lot of debate about whether this will be enough to put them on solid financial ground.

NASCAR’s charter policy is set to expire after the 2024 season, and teams are negotiating for permanent charters and a larger share of the revenue. Denny Hamlin earlier this season, started this discussion by demanding a bigger piece of the pie. Most Cup Series teams have been struggling financially, and a big part of the problem is how the media rights revenue is split up. Right now, teams only get 25% of that revenue, while tracks get 65% and NASCAR takes 10%. This setup makes it tough for teams to invest in their operations and stay competitive.

While some teams have agreed upon signing the deal, the Hamlin and Jordan faction doesn’t seem to be budged. During NASCAR’s playoff media day this week, 23XI co-owner Denny Hamlin described the negotiations as “stagnant” when asked about their progress at the recent media day. According to Hamlin, “One side will have to wake up and be reasonable” for the debate to be over and a solution found. And he even believes it has to be NASCAR who needs to realize the demands.

The MJ and Hamlin sides have been the ones leading the charge. Like previously, in a sign of protest, at Darlington, Curtis Polk, who invests in 23XI, had a handwritten sign on his shirt that said, “Please don’t ask me about my Charter. I don’t want to disparage NASCAR and lose it,”

“Frustration,” is what Denny Hamlin said when he was asked why Polk wore the sign.

Being a team owner, Hamlin has previously pointed out how expensive it is to run a team and demanded $18 million to just put the race car on the track every week. This comes after NASCAR just signed a big deal with FOX Sports, NBC, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Amazon. It’s worth $7.7 billion and lasts from 2025 to 2031. This deal will bring in more cash for NASCAR, which could help teams with their finances under the new charter system if agreed upon. However, unless all demands are met, Hamlin and Co. don’t seem to be signing anything.

Where does the current charter agreement stand?

Currently, Teams and NASCAR have reportedly reached a broad agreement on how to divide the funds from the next TV deals. However, they still face disagreements on other issues. Although the teams operate as independent contractors and don’t hold equity in NASCAR Holdings, both parties are hoping to forge a closer working relationship in the next term, potentially including joint efforts in selling sponsorships.

On this, Hamlin had also said, “All we do is compete against each other instead of locking arms and growing the sport together. Until we do that, we are just going to continue spinning our tires.”

According to Adam Stern of SBJ, several teams are preparing to sign the agreement and are likely to do so in the next few days, assuming no last-minute issues arise. There are concerns among some in the sport that if some teams. sign on while others are still negotiating, it could lead to an unusual, if not unprecedented, situation on NASCAR’s business side.

However, according to the 23XI co-owner, NASCAR intentionally delayed the negotiations to make smaller teams feel pressured into accepting whatever terms NASCAR presented.

He said, “There’s probably a handful of teams that are just happy to take any deal that they can get, and there are others with some business sense that says this is unreasonable.” All the negotiations can go down the drain if this divide and rule works out in NASCAR’s favor. Only time will tell what comes out of all this.