“Stop Destroying the Sport”- NASCAR’s Unprecedented ‘$’ Move Putting Teams on the Spot Riles Up Racing Community

NASCAR is full of uncertainty, and recent times have been proof enough. JGR driver and co-owner of NASCAR Cup Series team 23XI Racing, Denny Hamlin, wasn’t bluffing on his take on charter negotiations when he said, “I think there’s still a ton of work to do. Not a little bit of work. Quite a bit. So that’s going to be the priority over the next few months to get this thing a little closer.” This was quite evident from NASCAR’s most recent proposal to the teams in the ongoing charter negotiations.

According to a report by the Sports Business Journal, NASCAR is planning to put a budget cap on the team to restrict their spending. Not only that, the France family is also looking to enter the Cup Series racing with their involvement as team owners. This move has sent shockwaves through the NASCAR community, questioning their intentions of having absolute control of the sport.

Here’s the latest on charter negotiations

The current charter agreement between NASCAR and the team runs until 2024. However, despite missing multiple deadlines and back-and-forth arguments the two parties have not reached a consensus. The teams are still firm on their demands of a permanent charter and increased revenue from multiple steams. Meanwhile, NASCAR is refraining from splitting ownership and control over the sport by agreeing to these demands.

However, none of the demands are yet to be met, and recent developments aren’t looking too promising for the Team Alliance. The new proposal tabled by NASCAR had a clause that would allow the members of the France family to buy and run a Cup Series charter. The current agreement didn’t allow NASCAR’s involvement in ownership, citing a conflict of interest.

But that was not it, NASCAR also plans to include cost caps for the teams. This could be a rebuttal by the governing council over the team’s argument about the heavy financial cost of running a race team. The cost cap essentially limits the amount of money a team can spend on its race car throughout a season. Formula 1 has a cost cap that came into force in 2021; currently, it stands at $135 million a year.

Such a proposal could be a decoy to force the teams into agreeing to the proposal of seven plus one additional year of charter extension. It’s clear that NASCAR does not want to share its ownership stake and allow teams to have a say in the decision-making process.

But the mere idea of adding a cost cap to the Cup Series teams wasn’t well received by the race fans. They quickly took to their social media handles to explain how cost caps do not make sense in NASCAR racing.

Fans explain the implications of adding a cost cap on NASCAR teams

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It’s no secret that organizations with financial muscle and longevity in the sport always have the upper hand over the competition. For example, Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing, even if cost caps are introduced, these teams will find a loophole to avoid any implications and go about their usual business. “The ones with the most money Wins. That’s not going to change. Cap or not.”

Some even argued that teams like Hendrick Motorsports, which have multiple business ventures apart from running a NASCAR team, can easily dupe the cost cap system. “Larson’s Indy 500 costs about to suspiciously jump from $3 million to $20 million, as a cover for Hendrick to skirt the budget cap.”

NASCAR already has a Next-Gen car to ensure a level playing field, along with the sharing of SMT data. And if the cost caps were introduced, the idea of parity racing would reach new heights. Frustrated by NASCAR’s pursuit of the impossible, a user added, “At what point do we come to realize that the best teams are the best teams regardless of how much we try to force parity, and stop destroying the sport in the pursuit of the impossible?”

Old-school hardcore NASCAR fans also joined the discussion, and they had a rather simple solution to do away with this chaos and confusion. “Let’s get rid of the charters and go back to the old days of NASCAR where teams built the cars in shop instead of this bs.”

Highlighting how NASCAR’s previous efforts have hampered Cup racing in recent years, another fan wrote, “Saving $$ gave us a Aero= car that has few areas to work on. No testing little Practice gives us reliance on SIMS yielding ho hum races. France now wants to own teams why? They own NASCAR now! $$$$.”

This was followed up by a comment aimed at NASCAR for running a circus show instead of a racing series. “nascar continuing to prove that it’s the biggest clown show in motorsports.”

Certainly, the charter negotiations are far from done, and given the recent developments, NASCAR isn’t exactly adding incentives to their proposals for teams to sign the extension.