Yahoo Finance 23XI Racing Refuses to Sign New NASCAR Charter Deal at Deadline
As the 2024 NASCAR Playoffs take off this weekend, the sanctioning body hoped to have the revised charter agreement wrapped up tight. Unfortunately, two teams have said they will not sign: Front Row Motorsports and 23XI Racing. Both entities are two-car teams seeking a third car through the charter agreement. The latter is one of the newest and most exciting teams in the sport, partially owned by NBA legend Michael Jordan and current NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin.
Front Row Motorsports has yet to release a statement about why they didn't sign the charter agreement. 23XI has stated that they will not sign the new agreement for the 2025-2031 season as they have not had "an opportunity to fairly bargain for a new Charter contract."
Statement from 23XI ownership pic.twitter.com/z0z5rjRjEP
— 23XI Racing (@23XIRacing) September 7, 2024
23XI is also home to the 2024 season champion, Tyler Reddick, who secured the trophy by one point over Kyle Larson. Reddick's two wins, 11 top fives, and 18 top 10s, the series leader in the last two categories, catapulted him to the front of the points.
As tensions built last week with 23XI being one of the more vocal critics of how talks were going, NASCAR was not around to present Reddick with his regular season championship.
“You know, certainly, pretty disappointed to not see anyone from NASCAR present Tyler his trophy,” Hamlin said.“You know, certainly, pretty disappointed to not see anyone from NASCAR present Tyler his trophy,” Hamlin said.
At the Friday night deadline, 23XI sent a letter to NASCAR detailing what issues they thought needed to be addressed in the current writing of the new charter agreement.
"We notified NASCAR what issues needed to be addressed, in writing, at the deadline." 23XI stated. "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. At 23XI Racing, we remain committed to competing at the highest level while also standing firm in our belief that NASCAR should be governed by fair and equitable practices."
AP's Jenna Fryer shared on social media that she's heard from sources that other teams felt "coerced and threatened" to sign the agreement.
While the big legacy teams, such as Joe Gibbs, Hendrick, and Penske, didn't come forward to fight, the charters, 23XI and Front Row Motorsports, are forced to act as David's trying to take down a Goliath.
Brad Keselowski, current driver and part owner of RFK Racing, a fellow two-car team that hopes to expand, told media, including Racer's Kelly Crandell, that while the deal isn't perfect, the best deals leave everyone at the table feeling like they lost something.
"One of these agreements is only good when everybody is just a little bit jaded, and I think there's things; obviously, we'd like to have better," Keselowski told media. "But there's pieces we really like and there's pieces not so much. But it's hard to use the word 'fair.' I don't know if I know what that means."
When Keselowski was asked about teams being coerced to sign the deal, he said he didn't know where that feeling started, "I don't necessarily know where that's coming from, but forced is a really strong term. We are getting to a spot where it's important to get these things settled."
"As of now, the sports lives and dies off of the media rights deal; there's no way around that," Keselowski told the media. "When the media right deal got done this winter, that was a big deal for the sport, and now you're seeing the dominoes fall behind that."
NASCAR's new media rights bill is a whopping 7.7 Billion across Fox Sports, NBC, Warners Brothers Discovery, and Amazon secured for the next seven years. The deal is a 40% increase over the current media deal.
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