According to two separate reports, one from Jenna Fryer of the Associated Press and one from Sports Business Journal’s Adam Stern, representatives from every NASCAR Cup Series team opted to symbolically boycott Wednesday’s Team Owner Council meeting with the sanctioning body.
The Race Team Alliance and NASCAR have been locked in negotiations involving television revenue distribution for the upcoming NASCAR TV deal, which is set to begin in 2025.
According to Fryer, “The teams are demanding a better financial model and do not feel NASCAR is negotiating in good faith.”
To read the full breakdown of Wednesday’s meeting boycott, read the story from the AP here.
Last October, representatives from Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing, RFK Racing and 23XI Racing met with an exclusive group of motorsports journalists to talk about the ongoing revenue negotiations. And in that meeting with the media, the team representatives stated that the negotiations were far apart between NASCAR and the teams.
At the time, Chris Polk of 23XI Racing was quoted as saying, “There’s a total misalignment of interests. As a result, the economic model is broken for the teams. The sustainability of the teams in this sport is not very long-term unless we have a fundamental change in the model.”
Six months later, there doesn’t seem to be any progression in the talks, which led to the team owners boycotting the latest meeting.
NASCAR issued a statement addressing the team owners boycotting the meeting.
In its statement, NASCAR said, “NASCAR is committed to open and productive dialogue on a regular basis with all industry stakeholders. 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.”
Something is going to have to give one way or the other in these negotiations as it takes both sides to put on a racing series. This will be an intriguing storyline to keep an eye on as we approach the end of the current NASCAR television package, which expires at the conclusion of 2024.
