The Race Team Alliance’s goals were crucial to the sport’s long-term health. For instance, the 2016 economic model projected teams to lose $200 million over the next five years if nothing changed. Even though reports suggest that NASCAR yielded their increased media revenue demand, other issues were just swept aside. Teams wanted permanent charters as they could attract outside investors to defray the Next-Gen car’s crippling costs. However, when NASCAR slapped a 6-hour ultimatum for teams to sign their inconsiderately formed charter deal, Rick Hendrick yielded.

Yes, Rick Hendrick shared his reason- holding a massive 40-year legacy under the same charter system was also a reason why he chose to abandon Michael Jordan, whose team, 23XI Racing, is still refusing to buckle under pressure and sign the charter. But what if MJ’s stance propels a change within NASCAR?

Well, Rick Hendrick ensured his stance was clear in case NASCAR changed its mind as the NASCAR analyst, Eric Estepp quoted Mr. H in his YouTube video. “I think NASCAR, if they change anything for those two teams, that will go across the board. 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.”

23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports cited their unhappiness with the terms of the charter that they perceived as heavy-handed and unjust. What’s interesting here is that FRM is quite small yet chose to stand its ground as compared to Hendrick’s team. But if any change is brought in NASCAR, Hendrick’s team would automatically benefit and that’s something Eric Estepp thought was hypocritical. This reminds us of what Curtis Polk had stated.

Michael Jordan’s representative, Curtis Polk, shared in May, “Until we are all aligned and paddling the boat in the same direction, we’ll never be able to reach the full potential that NASCAR has.” 

He was of the belief that RTA’s unity came crashing down last week when 13 of 15 teams signed the new charter deal. Only 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports held out, fixated on a decent number of goals. What did Hendrick say about signing the charter deal?

“I was just tired,” is what Rick Hendrick said after signing the new charter deal. After two years of constant negotiation, it looked like Mr. H lost hope after all.

However, a 23XI official has already laid to rest Rick Hendrick’s concerns.

NASCAR: Are the teams still united?

“We are David facing Goliath,” Curtis Polk said. Polk drew a lot of attention at the Darlington race, where he sported a meaningful shirt. It carried the caption: “Please don’t ask me about my charter. I don’t want to disparage NASCAR and lose it.” Denny Hamlin, as well as Dale Earnhardt Jr. were disappointed to see so many teams bending so quickly.

Yet NASCAR’s superior bargaining power, and weight in the sport are visible. So when the charter deal was expected to be signed in 6 hours, teams felt compelled to sign. RFK Racing was the first to sign it, and other teams followed.

Being aware of this highly grim situation and NASCAR’s draconian power, 23XI Racing understood the situation. Curtis Polk laid to rest Rick Hendrick’s concerns about a changed deal as he stressed unity. “We’re not trying to do something that benefits 23XI to the detriment of the sanctioning body, the [NASCAR-owning] France family, or any of the other teams, the drivers, the fans,” Polk said.

“We wanted to do something that would help everybody. We think that the contract that was presented to sign had terms that we could not sign.”

More updates on 23XI as they cross the signing deadline this week. The team released an official written statement. “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 reminds us of Michael Jordan’s early NASCAR days. In 2020, he brought a team with a vision: good profit and great races.

For this, the former NBA player was ready to face short-term losses like the Next Generation cars that were introduced in 2022. They cost millions of dollars. 23XI Racing believed they would eventually make all the money back. After all, NASCAR’s sport’s broadcast rights value was to increase when they inked a $7.7 billion deal with Amazon, NBA, Fox, and Warner Bros. Unfortunately, things don’t seem to be going the way they envisioned.

They believe the main reason was NASCAR’s unwillingness to share a greater percentage of its revenue with the teams. Now, as per the information available, the new charters have come with an increased revenue. But not many details are available about how much.