NASCAR News: Rick Ware Racing countersues Legacy Motor Club

After suing Rick Ware Racing for allegedly backtracking on a signed contract to sell a charter to Legacy for 2026, RWR has since countersued Legacy. While Legacy claims they have a signed Charter Purchase Agreement for a 2026 charter, RWR claims they are trying to take a charter other than the one originally agreed upon.

And while this is unfolding, a report from the Associated Press has emerged, saying that T.J. Puchyr had entered into an agreement to purchase all of Rick Ware Racing.

In this latest suit, they claim Puchyr is wrongfully interfering with Legacy’s attempt to purchase a charter from RWR. This comes after Judge Daniel A. Kuehnert warned RWR that they could face “serious ramifications” if they tried to sell, despite previously indicating in court that they had no such plans.

Legacy revealed in a filing this week that Puchyr was actually working with the team as an “Independent Contractor Agreement” through his consulting firm, Rucus. They also say he had direct knowledge of their purchase agreement with RWR as he helped to broker it before making his own offer to buy the race team in the midst of this charter dispute. More at Motorsport

July 14, 2025

Rick Ware Racing and Legacy Motor Club had a short virtual hearing in a North Carolina court over their fight for a charter.

Legacy, owned by seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson, contends it had an agreement with RWR to lease one of its two charters in 2026. RWR contends the agreement was for 2027 and it already has a contract with RFK Racing to lease that team a charter next season.

Legacy on Monday asked for and was granted the right to depose RWR over the recent revelation that T.J. Puchyr, one of the founders of Spire Motorsports, plans to purchase the race team. Legacy contends if Ware is selling the team, then one of the charters should be transferred to its organization.

Legacy also argued that Ware did not disclose he was entering into a sales agreement with a third party — Puchyr, who is now a consultant and brokered the initial lease deal between RWR and Legacy — in an April hearing. The judge in that case warned that RWR could be in contempt of court if it misrepresented its intentions in the first hearing. Much more at Associated Press

June 22, 2025

Rick Ware Racing filed a countersuit against the team that’s suing it over a contract dispute, claiming that Jimmie Johnson’s Legacy Motor Club falsely claimed it had been sold a racing contract for the 2026 season.

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“Should RWR be forced to sell Charter No. 27 for 2026, it would have no charter under which to race and would go out of business. For this reason, RWR would never have agreed (and unequivocally did not agree) to sell Charter No. 27 in advance of the 2026 season,” Rick Ware Racing said in a newly unsealed court filing.

In the countersuit, Rick Ware Racing says that when Legacy approached it to purchase a charter, it was clear it could only sell a charter for the 2027 racing season. Early drafts of the contract between the parties “reflected the importance of RWR having Charter to race under in 2026,” Rick Ware Racing said, including a notice that said Rick Ware intended to race Charter No. 27 in 2026.

In February, there was some confusion between the parties over the charter number, and another purchase draft was sent to Rick Ware that identified Charter No. 36 as the sale charter, which Rick Ware confirmed was correct. The parties signed the agreement, which the racing team said contained “several errors and misstatements of fact” and included references to “2025” that should have been “2026.”

After the agreement was signed, Rick Ware said, Legacy Motor began insisting that the agreement concerned Charter No. 27.

Rick Ware Racing said it has tried multiple times to return a non-refundable deposit of $750,000 that Legacy provided, but Legacy has refused to accept it. The sale itself placed the price of the charter at $45 million, the highest amount for which a charter has ever been sold. Courthouse News