Kyle Busch claims he was catalyst for NASCAR charter dispute

Kyle Busch is keeping a watchful eye on 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports’ joint antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR and CEO Jim France, filed in federal court in North Carolina earlier this month.

23XI and Front Row were the only two teams to not sign NASCAR’s final charter proposal at Atlanta Motor Speedway in September. In their lawsuit, they accused NASCAR and France of “unlawful monopolization of premier stock car racing in order to enrich themselves at the expense of the premier stock car racing teams.”

Busch is no stranger to charter drama himself as just over two years ago, the 39-year-old lost his ride with Joe Gibbs Racing after longtime sponsor M&M’s pulled out of the sport. He then joined Richard Childress Racing, a moment he believes served as a catalyst to the charter dispute between NASCAR and its teams.

“I was sort of the catalyst to this process of what’s going on in the charter agreements,” Busch told David Rumsey of Front Office Sports. “When I was with Joe Gibbs Racing, we lost our main sponsor M&M’s as they pulled out of the sport, and I was left without a job because we couldn’t find a replacement sponsor.”

Kyle Busch: Other sports ‘a lot healthier than ours’

Teams had been negotiating an extension of the original 2016 charter agreement for the last two years ahead of its expiration on Dec. 31. Teams made demands such as making charters permanent and receiving a larger portion of the revenue from TV money.

Under the current model, charters are not permanent franchises like the setup in other professional sporting leagues. Teams can lose their charters due to poor performance on the racetrack or failing to field their cars week in and week out. As a result, most race teams lose money on a yearly basis.

Busch agrees that teams should receive more revenue, such as other sports in the United States do.

“Other sports are healthy,” Busch said. “They’re a lot healthier than ours.”

“NASCAR is a great family sport, and we have these opportunities of supporting one another at a lot of times and through a lot of good and a lot of bad,” Busch continued. “But as most families do, sometimes they fight.”