NASCAR: Team owners boycott quarterly NASCAR meeting

Owners of NASCAR Cup Series teams boycotted their scheduled meeting with NASCAR officials over revenues, multiple outlets reported Wednesday.

The two sides are in a dispute over how to divide revenue from the organization’s next television contract, which soon will be up for renegotiation. The current pact with FOX Sports and NBC expires following the 2024 season, Yahoo reported.

But there is apparently more.

The Athletic reported that team owners want NASCAR’s charter system to continue but that Jim France is said to be “dead set” against making it permanent.

NASCAR’s charter agreement with Cup teams started in 2016 and goes through the 2024 season. The agreement sets up the revenue model and requires the 36 charter teams to compete in every event.

Under the current deals, teams receive 25 percent of the television contract. NASCAR gets 10 percent, and the tracks — many of which are NASCAR-owned — take the other 65 percent.

In a statement to Sports Business Journal, NASCAR leadership indicated that the organization is ready to negotiate.

“NASCAR is committed to open and productive dialogue on a regular basis with all industry stakeholders,” the statement read. “We remain committed to continuing discussions in the spirit of collaboration and with the shared goal of growing our sport for the benefit of all stakeholders.”

Team owners are seeing increased expenses and fewer dollars from sponsors and could use a boost from a new television contract.

Cup team executives said last October that they need additional revenue streams to fix a “broken” business model. Their comments came after NASCAR rejected a seven-point proposal from team executives on a new model.

“We’re very far apart,” Jeff Gordon, vice chairman of Hendrick Motorsports, said last October.