As a byproduct of U.S. District Court Judge Kenneth Bell ruling on a summary judgment in favor of 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports against NASCAR, the court has also “unsealed and unredacted a number of documents” regarding the case, according to Matt Weaver of MOTORSPORT. That includes “a copy of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Charter Agreement.” Weaver noted some of these details were already public, but the exact figures of payment were not, until getting released this week. The 2016 to 2024 charter agreement “used a three-year rolling average of championship finishes” to determine how much a team got paid by NASCAR. With the new agreement, this is “now a two-year rolling average.” In other words, the “value of each charter is determined by” 100% of the most recent season’s championship finish and 50% of the previous season’s championship finish (MOTORSPORT, 10/29).
BEHIND THE CURTAINS: FORBES’ Greg Engle noted among the exhibits released yesterday are charts “labeled ‘Race Purse Payout Curve for Cup Series Points Events’ and ‘Year-End Point Fund Payout.’” The tables show, in “crisp black and white, exactly what each finishing position earns and how that scales over the next several years.” These figures, “leaked through litigation,” provide the “first real look at NASCAR’s financial architecture.” They confirm that even as event purses climb into eight figures, the “performance gap between front-runners and field-fillers remains relatively narrow.” Engle wrote it is a system “designed to keep everyone solvent, but few truly rich.” It also “sheds light on why team owners have been at odds with NASCAR over the next charter agreement.” Rising costs, expensive technology and expanding travel schedules have all “outpaced that modest 3% growth curve.” Engle: “What these charts reveal is a sport balancing on the fine line between competition and capitalism -- one where a race team’s success can be measured in tenths of a second and tenths of a percent” (FORBES, 10/29).
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