Why did NASCAR teams boycott Cup team owners meeting?

The NASCAR Cup series teams refused to attend the weekly team owners meeting as a form of protest.

Why did NASCAR teams boycott Cup team owners meeting?

NASCAR 2023 Richmond Cup race (Credits: NASCAR.Com)

NASCAR officials have a big task in hand ahead of the 2025 season, which will see the sanctioning body sign a new broadcasting rights deal. The current deal with Fox and NBC will end in 2024. The broadcasting deal will be open to negotiations next season. The current broadcasters have special privileges that allow them to start new negotiations this season.

Before signing the multi-year deal, NASCAR has to sort out its profit-sharing structure. The teams are pressuring the sanctioning body to grant them a big piece of the pie, as they are only getting 25% of the Total revenue. Now it’s reported that the Cup series team has pulled out from the scheduled team owners meeting with Jim France and Ben Kennedy. The meeting was supposed to take place on Wednesday.

The teams decided to boycott the weekly meeting in order to show their strength and displeasure with NASCAR for delaying the negations.  None of the members attended the meeting and are demanding more time to be invested in the negations. If the powers struggle between NASCAR and Cup teams continues, fans can expect more drama.

NASCAR follows a 65-25-10 profit-sharing system for the $800 Million profit it’s receiving from the NBC-Fox deal. Teams are expecting a raise since the new deal will involve more profit. 65% of the deal goes to the Tracks, which host races and the 10% goes directly to the sanctioning body’s account. Most of the Cup tracks are owned by NASCAR; hence they get the major share from the 65% bracket as well.

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How NASCAR reacted to the surprise decision from the teams?

2021 Daytona 500
NASCAR teams boycotted Cup team owners meeting

The sanctioning body didn’t expect such drastic actions from the teams and was quick to release a statement on it. NASCAR assured the stakeholders that they are committed to having a dialogue with them regularly to solve issues. The premier stock car racing body asked the teams to show the spirit of collaboration.

“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,” the statement read.  

The negotiations aren’t the only situation NASCAR is handling right now. The TV ratings of races have seen a drastic fall in 2023 compared to the same event from 22 season. This will reduce the bargaining power of NASCAR on the new deal, and teams’ protests aren’t also helping.

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