As the offseason wears on, the lack of a charter agreement between NASCAR and the race teams becomes more of a concern. With the new TV deal in place, it seemed like only a matter of time before the charter deal was reached, but that has not yet happened. Could a Civil War be brewing in NASCAR shortly, or, will a charter agreement be reached?
The charter agreement is the biggest business link between NASCAR and the race team. It was first implemented in 2016, and this is a simplified overview of the agreement.
NASCAR allocates 36 charters for race teams to purchase. Those who buy the charters get a guaranteed starting spot in each race, provided they attempt to qualify for all races, and a larger split of the TV and purse revenue.
Adam Stern reported that the top-performing race teams currently earn $8-10 million per year under the current agreement with the lesser-performing teams earning around half that much. This is why purchasing a charter is so critical for a race team. Without a charter, they are at a woeful disadvantage regarding money distribution from NASCAR.
Charters are also a great safety net for race teams. They can tell their sponsors with a 100% guarantee that their brand will be on the race car during the race. There is no risk of missing the race if you are a chartered team.
Without the agreement, the charter system does not exist, and the race teams are incentivized to look elsewhere to take their assets. NASCAR needs the race teams to keep the big names and superstars in the sport. The race teams need NASCAR for financial stability and as an actual sanctioning body to hold events.
The charter negotiations have been going on in the background all throughout the 2023 season. However, the new TV deal starting in 2025 has accelerated speculation on the status of negotiations. These negotiations are between NASCAR and the “Teams Negotiation Committee” (or TNC for short). The TNC consists of Jeff Gordon (Hendrick Motorsports), Dave Alpern (Joe Gibbs Racing), Steve Newmark (RFK Racing), and Curtis Polk (23XI Racing).
Teams Make a Statement: Spring 2023
Throughout the spring of 2023, the race teams made one thing very clear publicly: they wanted the charter system to be permanent. Jenna Fryer of The Associated Press reported in April that the Race Team Alliance, which negotiates on behalf of the teams, skipped a planned meeting with NASCAR over fears that the meeting would be “hijacked” by charters. The AP later reported that NASCAR teams sent a letter to the sanctioning body asking for charters to be permanent. Despite this, talks eventually began between the race teams and NASCAR.
Denny Hamlin Speaks Out: Fall 2023
Denny Hamlin spoke to the media in late August, and he was asked about the negotiations. He said that talks were “Not well”, and that he has not heard a good reason for why the teams are not getting granted what they request.
Some Optimism: Fall 2023
Steve Phelps spoke to the media for the annual “State of the Sport” address at Phoenix during the Championship weekend. He offered some optimism in how negotiations were going between NASCAR and the race teams.
If you would ask the race teams do we think we’re making progress with NASCAR on where things stand in the extension of our charters, I think our race teams would say yes.
Steve Phelps
According to Phelps, progress was being made on the issue of charters, and Adam Stern also reported that at least some of the teams agreed. However, the media rights deal had to come first.
In late November, the media rights deal was finally complete. A 7-year, $7.7 million media rights deal to be exact. A roughly 40% increase per year from the original contract.
Stunts on the Track?: December 2023
Adam Stern joined The Money Lap with Landon Cassil and Parker Kligerman, and he admitted that a deal may not be done by Daytona. Stern admitted that, if that happened, race teams may look at showing their displeasure during a race.
So, it seems the character agreement is still a ways off from being complete. Negotiations may continue into next season. NASCAR and the teams have cut it close before.
In 2020, NASCAR and the teams announced an extension of the charter agreement the week of the Daytona 500. However, negotiations then were nearly as tense as they are now.
Early 2024: Charter Negotiations Extended, then Stopped with No Progress Made
In December of 2023, NASCAR and the teams both agreed to extend their negotiating window until the end of January. In the last week of January, when the negotiation window was running out, Denny Hamlin spoke out on the charter negotiations. He said that NASCAR and the teams were no closer to the deal.
That was followed up later in the week by an Adam Stern report that NASCAR and the teams did not agree to extend their negotiating window. Stern reported that industry sources claim that a deal is “Months away”. He also reported that NASCAR may revoke charters from the race teams if a new agreement is not reached along with.
So, what does the negotiation period ending mean exactly? Well, according to Stern, it means, amongst other things, that teams can technically negotiate with other racing series if they so choose. However, he did say that those in the industry expect a deal to get done, and Denny Hamlin also echoed that sentiment.
February 2024: Drama at Daytona
Speedweeks at Daytona saw mixed signals sent on the charter negotiations. Steve Phelps preached optimism in an interview with Chris Myers of Fox Sports. That same weekend, the race teams invited NASCAR to a meeting to discuss the charters, which NASCAR declined to attend.
This also came in the wake of outspoken comments from Denny Hamlin and Jeff Gordon. While both said they feel a deal will get done, both expressed frustration at the standstill in negotiations. Gordon spoke out about how much race teams are struggling, claiming that Hendrick Motorsports hasn’t had a profit in 10 years.
March 2024: Teams Hesitant to Introduce a Cost Cap
Charter negotiations were on the backburner for much of the first 6 weeks of the season, but, the conversation bubbled up in late March. Adam Stern reported that race teams are not convinced that a budget cap is necessary. A budget cap is what NASCAR has reportedly proposed to the race teams to help with the current costs.
April 2024: SMI Holding the Teams Up?
Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic gave some insight into the current charter negotiations in an episode of “The Teardown” following the Martinsville race. While he acknowledged that this is far from the only issue, he mentions that Speedway Motorsports Inc. (SMI) is rumored to be holding negotiations back by not being willing to offer more money.
Multiple people I’ve spoken to about this [say] there is a frustration with Speedway Motorsports that they maybe aren’t wanting to concede enough. Because they’re unwilling to want to back down and give more to the teams, what the teams want, this is holding up negotiations. Now, this isn’t THE hurdle. This isn’t like, ‘oh my goodness if they can clear this hurdle this deal is going to be done’, but this is certainly a hurdle. There is a belief that Speedway Motorsports is not willing to take a greater cut than they want to, and because of that, this is kind of holding things up to some degree.
Jorda Bianchi.
April 2024: NASCAR Says “We’re Very Close”, but Not Everyone Agrees
Adam Stern provided an update on the charter negotiations in mid-April as Steve O’Donnell spoke at the CAA World Congress of Sports. While O’Donnell claims that NASCAR and the teams are “Very close” to a deal, Stern spoke to 3 other sources who he says do not agree with O’Donnell’s claim.
If a deal is not reached, the results could be catastrophic. Could there be a split between NASCAR and the race teams similar to the CART/IRL split that still haunts IndyCar to this day? It’s certainly possible, and that would do nothing but harm to NASCAR if history serves as any guide.
When the CART/IRL split happened in 1996, fans and teams were divided, and TV ratings and attendance declined on all fronts. Eventually, with IRL getting the better of CART (now Champ Car), both entities reunited in 2008. Still, the damage had already been done, and IndyCar has never fully recovered.
With that story in history, the hope is that NASCAR and the teams refrain from unleashing an all-out Civil War of stock car racing by splitting up. However, anything is possible if the negotiations continue to break down, and those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
The bottom line is that NASCAR needs the teams, but the teams also need NASCAR. Without the teams and the drivers, NASCAR does not have the stars that make it what it is. If the race teams do not have NASCAR, then who can sanction events and give the teams financial stability from TV revenue?
Three races, three wins, and three straight celebrations with Michael Jordan. History was made at Circuit of the Americas as Tyler Reddick opened the season with an unprecedented three straight victories, holding off Shane van Gisbergen in the Texas heat while chaos and strategy shuffled the field behind them. Here’s how it scored on the Groovy Gauge, powered by Lectric eBikes.
After two wildcards to kick off the 2026 season, NASCAR headed to Circuit of the Americas (COTA) for round 3 on the year. The big headline heading into this weekend was whether or not Tyler Reddick could become the first driver in NASCAR history to win three straight races to start a campaign. Three times before, drivers have won the first two races of the year. Now Reddick, fresh off the heels of a Daytona 500 win and a win at Atlanta makes history as the only driver to go three for three.
The No. 45 23XI team is certainly on a roll with a 70-point points lead. However, not everyone had a weekend to remember. Here are the biggest losers of the 2026 NASCAR race weekend at COTA.
Another race weekend, another controversial race for Hendrick Motorsports’ Corey Day. And it is, yet again, a tangle with a JR Motorsports car that lands him on this list. Late into Saturday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at COTA, Corey Day got into his Hendrick teammate, Connor Zilisch, who was driving the No. 1 car for the team, causing Zilisch to spin out. Up to that point, Zilisch had already overcome a lot of adversity. Heading into one of the tight corners of COTA, Day clipped Zilisch, sending him around and effectively ending his contention for the race win.
After the incident, Connor Zilisch came over the radio and called Day a “total hack” and then, after the race, told reporters that he expects and deserves an apology. Day was a good sport about it all, owning up to his mistakes. But it’s just another week of Day barreling through his competitors that makes this a weekend he’d likely rather forget. To his credit, though, despite the issues, he still managed a top 5 finish. So, at least there’s that.
Unfortunately, Connor Zilisch makes the list. There was a lot of buzz around Connor Zilisch heading into the weekend, considering his dominance on road courses last year in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. I think that many fans viewed Saturday’s race as a cakewalk for the young phenom, while others thought that the odds were in his favor to capture his first win on Sunday. Unfortunately for him, none of that came to fruition. While Saturday’s race looked like another SVG/Connor Zilisch thriller in the making, mechanical issues put the driver of the No. 1 car behind the 8-ball. Not to mention a late race incident with Corey Day and Saturday could be considered the win that could have been for Zilisch.
Sunday wasn’t much better. He did manage to keep his nose clean, so there was that. But he was more or less a non-factor most of the race. He started in the back and was able to work his way up and contend for a top 10 finish in the closing laps. Unfortunately, all he could manage was a 14th-place finish.
Undeniably, the odds-on favorite going into today’s race had to be the one, the only, the NASCAR King of the Road himself, Shane van Gisbergen. Despite win-and-you’re-in being a thing of the past, many fan still expect SVG to make the 16-driver Chase for the Cup later this year based on sheer wins at road course races alone. His first opportunity came early with COTA being the third race of the season. Unfortunately, despite winning handily in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race on Saturday, he wasn’t able to get the job done on Sunday. He was in prime position to win his seventh career cup win but, unfortunately, the stars didn’t align. He was forced to settle for a runner-up finish.
The story going into this weekend’s race at COTA was will Tyler Reddick be able to do the impossible and become the first driver in history to win the first three races of the season. It was a tall order, for sure, but the fact that he scored the pole on Saturday must have put a pep in his step. Early on, he was far from the fastest. As the race wore on, though, he got better and better, ultimately able to outduel the King of the Road, SVG on his own turf.
Because of Reddick’s dominant performance, the last loser on our list this week is the rest of the NASCAR Cup Series field. They just did not rise to the occasion, and Tyler Reddick managed to capitalize to make history. Now, they just need to go to Phoenix next week and prevent him from going four in a row. At this rate, though, Reddick might actually embarrass the field once again.
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In this post, we’re breaking down the top 10 all-time lap leaders at Circuit of the Americas, along with key stats, besides reviewing the top 15 active drivers with the most laps led at the track. And that’s not all; we’re also examining some of COTA’s historic track records and the names still holding them, so stick around until the end to check them out
| Races | Laps Run | Wins | Poles | Avg. Finish | Avg. Start |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | 456 | 2 | 3 | 4.0 | 2.0 |
| Races | Laps Run | Wins | Poles | Avg. Finish | Avg. Start |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | 456 | 1 | 2 | 7.3 | 9.3 |
| Races | Laps Run | Wins | Poles | Avg. Finish | Avg. Start |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | 456 | 0 | 0 | 11.0 | 13.7 |
| Races | Laps Run | Wins | Poles | Avg. Finish | Avg. Start |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | 454 | 1 | 0 | 10.5 | 10.8 |
| Races | Laps Run | Wins | Poles | Avg. Finish | Avg. Start |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 258 | 0 | 0 | 9.3 | 10.3 |
| Races | Laps Run | Wins | Poles | Avg. Finish | Avg. Start |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | 418 | 1 | 0 | 13.0 | 10.3 |
| Races | Laps Run | Wins | Poles | Avg. Finish | Avg. Start |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | 456 | 0 | 0 | 18.7 | 17.5 |
| Races | Laps Run | Wins | Poles | Avg. Finish | Avg. Start |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | 456 | 0 | 0 | 19.0 | 15.2 |
| Races | Laps Run | Wins | Poles | Avg. Finish | Avg. Start |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | 403 | 0 | 0 | 29.3 | 11.5 |
| Races | Laps Run | Wins | Poles | Avg. Finish | Avg. Start |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | 456 | 0 | 0 | 13.8 | 17.5 |
Let us know your thoughts on this list. Are there any drivers that surprise you? What track record do you think will never be broken? Join the discussion on Discord or X, and remember to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube for more updates.
