Team Owners Seemingly Win the Final Round of Charter Negotiations as NASCAR Takes a Step Back From Ridiculous Proposal

NASCAR hasn’t signed the charter agreement yet, but they’ve already started hashing out the details. We should see their offer on paper in the next few weeks. From what’s been going around, it sounds like the team owners might have won a small battle while the war is still up in the air.

There was talk that NASCAR might tweak the clause to favor the NASCAR family over the individual teams. But given the teams’ reluctance about this change, there’s a chance NASCAR might backpedal on that idea.

NASCAR teams are not too keen on letting members of the France family jump into the fray

Instead of having a big group huddle with the Team Negotiation Committee (TNC)—a team set up by the team’s owners for these charter talks, including Michael Jordan—NASCAR decided to chat up teams one-on-one. During these talks, sources revealed that NASCAR hinted at tweaking a rule in the charter system. The rule currently stops any NASCAR owner’s family from competing or owning a chunk of a team.

The idea isn’t totally out there—Jim France, the head honcho of NASCAR, owns a team in IMSA. But this suggestion didn’t sit well with many teams. They’re worried it might mess with the sport’s fairness. According to insiders, this clause might get dropped from the final deal because of the pushback. NASCAR hasn’t made any official comments yet, but they did tell teams to expect a complete, written offer pretty soon. So, there’s a bit of a silver lining for the teams holding out for some clarity.

Under the current deal, NASCAR has agreed that neither the organization itself nor any family members of the owners will have a team if they’re actively managing NASCAR Holdings, according to a document reviewed by SBJ. There are a few loopholes, though. For instance, NASCAR could take over a team for up to a year if they really needed to while searching for a new owner. Another loophole lets a France family member who isn’t mixed up in running NASCAR scoop up a charter. Take Brian France, the former CEO who’s no longer with NASCAR Holdings—he could totally buy a charter if he wanted.

Tweaking this rule could have meant big bucks for the France family or any other relatives, especially since the value of these charters has skyrocketed recently. Plus, this talk about changing the rules popped up just after a huge cheating scandal hit IndyCar, involving Team Penske. Roger Penske not only owns the team but also runs the whole series, and that stirred up quite the storm.

So, well, at least not having France’s family as a team is a small yet significant win for the other NASCAR teams. On another note, SBJ said that some teams are warming up to the idea of making charters a permanent thing in the agreement.

Some NASCAR teams are willing to wait out a delay.

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Under the current charter system, NASCAR and the teams have an exclusive deal. NASCAR won’t pump out more charters, and the teams won’t race in other leagues. These charters are good until the end of 2024, which lines up with when NASCAR’s media rights deal wraps up. The teams have stuck to their side of the bargain, not racing their charters elsewhere, but they’re still on edge about potentially losing them without warning.

And that’s why teams are pushing even harder to cement their charters into permanence. While drivers and owners, including Denny Hamlin, are seemingly adamant on the idea of making the charters permanent from this agreement itself, some teams are warming up to at least starting down that path, even if making them permanent right away might not be on the cards for the 2025–2031 cycle. There’s chatter that some teams might sign off on NASCAR’s offer in the next few months if they get better guarantees about charter security.

NASCAR keeps mum about it, but it’s known that each charter team gets a slice of the pie for every race they run. However, this payout isn’t spread evenly. The winners pocket the most, and the rest get smaller cuts based on their race standings. Even with a cool $9 million per team payout, it’s often not enough to cover all their expenses. Teams find themselves scrambling for sponsors to break even.

Adding to the drama, NASCAR’s new media rights deal kicking off in 2025 is set to rake in about $1.1 billion annually until 2031—a 34% jump from the previous $820 million deal. Teams are arguing they should see more of that money, eyeing 45% of traditional media revenue and 33% of the new stuff.

It’s the classic tug-of-war over money that you see in other sports—NASCAR holds the reins while the teams hustle on the track. Being a private gig, only the France family really knows what NASCAR pulls in each year.