Tony Stewart’s Mastery Puts NASCAR in a Conundrum as He Exploits Contractual Loopholes

It’s not possible to keep everyone happy and that is exactly what NASCAR is facing at the moment. The problem is that the people they are unable to satisfy are influential enough to land the company in an extremely difficult situation. These people are the owners and representatives of the teams that participate in the competitions organized by NASCAR and the issue, like any other business, is with the financials. If reports are to be believed, things are not moving towards a solution, if anything, they’re moving in the opposite direction and Stewart-Haas Racing boss Tony Stewart is on the attack.

There are a lot of things that need to be kept in mind while understanding a situation as complex as this one, but that doesn’t make it any less intriguing. One thing that we need to keep in the back of our heads before we dive any deeper into what’s going on is what the team owners are contemplating if they don’t get their way. Well, the answer to that question is breaking away from NASCAR and starting an independent series. This would mean a NASCAR without the likes of Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing, Stewart-Haas Racing, Team Penske, and others. And who is the one leading the charge? None other than three-time Cup Series winner Tony Stewart.

Tony Stewart has just taken advantage of the simplest of loopholes

The current business model of NASCAR’s revenue-sharing system on paper suits the owners but is a lot more complex than that. The race tracks retain around 65% of the revenue the team owners are entitled to 25%. NASCAR itself takes 10%. A massive portion of NASCAR’s funding comes from sponsors that are brought in by the teams. A large portion of this money goes to the France family, who are considered to be the founders of the sport as it was Bill France Sr. who laid it’s foundations way back in 1948.

What the team owners are looking to have at the moment is a governing body that will look after their interests. It is in this respect that the Race Team Alliance (RTA) was founded, an alliance that consists of all of the 36 owners whose teams race in NASCAR. Negotiations have been ongoing between the two teams but not at the pace the RTA would have liked. As a result, the team owners are contemplating starting their own competition. Whether they’re serious or bluffing to force NASCAR into action is unclear.

In its policies and regulations, NASCAR has made it clear that none of the teams in the RTA would be allowed to start their own competitions using NASCAR cars. This is where the shrewd intelligence of Tony Stewart comes into play. Stewart has been running a competition independent of NASCAR for quite a while now called the Superstar Racing Alliance (SRX). But how has SRX been able to do so despite NASCAR’s regulations?

The answer is quite simple, by not using NASCAR cars. As the owner of Stewart-Haas Racing, Tony Stewart holds a ton of influence in the world of motorsports and if he has the full backing of 35 other disgruntled team owners, he can heavily damage NASCAR in the near future. If this is not reason enough for NASCAR to step up then they must have a lot of confidence calling the RTA’s bluff.

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As NASCAR struggles to find a way to appease the RTA, Tony Stewart’s ever-alert business mind has been working non-stop, trying to figure out a way to make SRX even bigger than what it already is. In August this year, Stewart said that he was exploring options to bring the competition outside the US to international circuits. 

The SHR boss’ venture could hurt NASCAR way more than expected

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According to Autoweek, Tony Stewart said that he did receive some opportunities to bring his competition to foreign soil and was still exploring the ways it could be made possible and effective.

“We have a little bit of interest from overseas to bring the SRX series over there. And I think doing a 10- or 12-race schedule in the U.S., and then having time to rerack, get everything ready, make sure that we have plenty of cars, parts, everything that we would need to go on an overseas trip like that and repeat the same thing with eight or 10 races, that would be an ultimate deal for me,” the Stewart-Haas Racing boss had said back in August.

“In the winter, when everybody’s got downtime, we could go somewhere nice and warm and have a lot of fun doing the same show that we do here in the U.S.,” he added.

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Business spats are not uncommon in the world of sports, but the RTA vs. NASCAR spat is gradually reaching its boiling point. If a solution isn’t figured out in the near future, things could get really messy, and it could change the landscape of stock car racing as we know it.