Two years of one-sided conversation finally ended last weekend as teams agreed to sign NASCAR’s new charter agreement. The Race Team Alliance, composed of 15 teams who collectively submitted their demands to NASCAR, held some goals in place regarding the new deal. However, the sanctioning body refused to budge and the teams decided to give in except for two.

The demands from teams included higher revenue share, increased executive power, a cut on business deals NASCAR does, and more critically permanent charters. NASCAR yielded only a fraction of these goals – but most teams were taxed to their limits to carry on the tug of war, as Rick Hendrick admitted.

Exhaustion caught up with Rick Hendrick

Curtis Polk, 23XI Racing co-owner, enthusiastically claimed the RTA’s unity earlier in April this year. He said the teams “are really fighting it out here and have all said they will not sign a charter agreement unless everybody is treated the same way.” However, barely five months later, the narrative has entirely changed.

Last week NASCAR issued a 6-hour ultimatum to Cup Series teams to sign a 105-page charter agreement or risk losing their charters for 2025. Everybody, including Rick Hendrick, yielded under the pressure with 13 teams of the RTA accepting NASCAR’s offer. Only two had the energy to stand out – Michael Jordan co-owned 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports.

Yet the team owner, who recently put a security stamp on Alex Bowman’s future, is clear about his decision. In a recent press conference, Rick Hendrick sighed a long sigh of helplessness. He confessed the two-year-long negotiation caught up with him and slipped a 4-word verdict for not holding out like alienating 23XI Racing’s NBA legend owner: “I was just tired.” Hendrick admitted

He said that ultimately all those long hours of negotiation could not have led to picture-perfect results. “I think we worked really hard for two years and it got down to, you’re not going to make everybody happy.” However, Hendrick seemed content with one of their demands being met at the moment.

“It’s not about the money — until it’s about the money,” Rick Hendrick himself said earlier this year. So the owner of the winningest team on the Cup Series grid was content with NASCAR’s one concession. “Not everybody was happy. But in any negotiation, you’re not going to get everything you want, and so I felt it was a fair deal and we protected the charters, which was number one, we got the (revenue) increase, I feel a lot of things we didn’t like we got taken out, so I’m happy with where we were.”

The new deal also has language that allows the series-owning France family to hold charters and field their own teams. The current NASCAR chairman, Jim France was never in favor of making the charters permanent and it became a bone of contention in the new agreement saga. NASCAR has its way, but the circumstances in which a compromise was reached may not be ideal.

Many teams said they felt pressured to take what was presented as a “take it or leave it final offer,” according to The Associated Press. The new charter deal comes with increased revenue, but the exact details haven’t been revealed. Earlier, teams received 25 percent of the TV revenue through the race purse while NASCAR took 10 percent and the tracks got 65 percent. But why did 23XI and Front Row Motorsports not put pen on paper on the new deal?

In a statement on September 7, 23XI said, “23XI decided to not meet a NASCAR-imposed deadline (Friday) night to sign Charter agreements for its two cars for 2025-31. 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 in 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.” This seemed like a reasonable stance, but Curtis Polk, a close ally of NBA icon Michael Jordan, representing the team in its charter battle pulled no punches.

He arrived at Atlanta ahead of the playoff opener with two typed pages of notes and explained 23XI’s decision. Polk described the struggle with NASCAR as “David facing Goliath.” He then added, “This isn’t the 1960s, and these predatory practices will not withstand scrutiny and be accepted in 2024. NASCAR has superior bargaining power and undue influence over the sport and the charter process. They wielded this power continuously over the past few months and consistently rejected broad team requests on major issues while providing minor changes for pet issues that some teams requested in one-on-one meetings.”

NASCAR has been adamant about how it wants to run things. Permanent charters were a no-no to begin with and many saw this as the key reason behind the delay in signing the new deal. The current deals run out in December and both 23XI and Front Row Sports have interest in acquiring a third charter. However, their refusal to sign the new deal means they won’t be able to do that and could even lose their current charters.

Although Polk didn’t clarify what will be 23XI’s next step, he was clear on where the team stood.

However, Hendrick doesn’t understand what Jordan and Bob Jenkins stand to gain from holding out, now that 13 out of 15 teams have agreed to the new conditions. He said, “I don’t have a dog in thatI mean, it’s like, we’ve had so many meetings about this thing. I feel like the majority of teams felt like we got as much as we could and it was time to move on.”

Despite yielding to NASCAR’s pressure, Rick Hendrick hopes to cash in on changes, if Michael Jordan’s fold can bring about them.

Setting a longing eye on abandoned hopes

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NASCAR has a 76-year legacy, with the France family at the helm since its inception. Challenging their long-standing foundation is no small feat. However, 23XI Racing’s owners, veteran racer Denny Hamlin and NBA legend Michael Jordan, are determined to take on that challenge. With the support of Bob Jenkins, CEO of Front Row Motorsports, they might succeed in convincing NASCAR to meet some of their fair demands. In anticipation of this possibility, Rick Hendrick has also expressed his own hopes.

After all, if the sanctioning body chooses to mold the charter deal, Rick Hendrick wants the fruits of that settlement. “I think NASCAR, if they change anything for those two teams, that will go across the board,” Hendrick said. “I’m pretty sure that would be the right thing to do because we, the teams that signed at the deadline, and then they make another deal a little bit better somewhere, that would be wrong.”

Evidently, the RTA’s goals are deeply divided, with many teams growing weary of the negotiations. However, Michael Jordan and his team might be on the verge of a turning point in the sport. NASCAR will either need to concede to their demands or face the possibility of them packing up.