NASCAR: Charter Agreement bargaining wore out the team owners

Rick Hendrick said his reason for signing NASCAR’s new charter agreement was not because he liked it, but because they wore him out. Per Jenna Fryer of the Associated Press, the owner of Hendrick Motorsports explained why he signed the new deal.

“I was just tired,” Hendrick said. Other owners, most drivers and all fans likely feel the same way as the charter deal has been an ongoing process. Hendrick was one of the 13 owners to sign the new agreement before the playoff opener at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Two teams, 23XI Racing and Front Row Racing, did not sign the new agreement that comes after two years of negotiations.

Brad Keselowski, current driver and co-owner of RFK Racing, disputed the notion that teams felt “forced” to sign. “It’s one of these agreements that is only good when everybody’s just a little bit jaded,” Keselowski said. “I think there’s things obviously we would like to have better, but I think to some degree, there’s pieces that 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.”

According to Fox Sports, teams have argued they deserve a bigger percentage of the television rights deal, a reported $1.1 billion deal that runs from 2025-2031 with FOX, NBC, Amazon, Warner Bros. and TNT Sports. Under the last deal, teams were paid 25 percent of the TV revenue through the race purse while NASCAR took 10 percent and the tracks got 65 percent.