Rick Hendrick, Justin Marks comment on charter agreement

09/11/2024 03:45 AM

Rick Hendrick, the winningest owner in NASCAR history, said Tuesday "I was just tired" of the lengthy negotiations over a new charter agreement and that played into his decision to sign NASCAR‘s final offer.

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"I think we worked really hard for two years and it got down to, you‘re not going to make everybody happy. And I think it got down to, I was just tired," Hendrick said. "Not everybody was happy. But in any negotiation, you‘re not going to get everything you want, and so I felt it was a fair deal and we protected the charters, which was number one, we got the (revenue) increase, I feel a lot of things we didn‘t like we got taken out, so I‘m happy with where we were."

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Hendrick isn‘t sure what 23XI and Front Row are hoping to gain by holding out. The charters they hold will theoretically expire and be revoked in December without an agreement with NASCAR.

"I don‘t have a dog in that," Hendrick said. "I mean, it‘s like, we‘ve had so many meetings about this thing. I feel like the majority of teams felt like we got as much as we could and it was time to move on.

— Associated Press —

AND:  Justin Marks, who is the principle owner of Trackhouse Racing, says his decision to sign the take it or leave it charter system extension agreement with NASCAR was born from a conviction that this moment was always going to come and there was ultimately little room for either side to budge.

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"It‘s been kind of a living document that has changed a lot as these conversations have taken place. But for me, and I can only speak for me, in the back of my mind, if they don‘t put a deadline on it — well, the deadline is when we go racing next year — if the day doesn‘t come when finally someone goes 'we‘re done here and we‘ve taken as long as we need,‘ then it will never come and it will never end. So me, personally, as we‘ve had these conversations, I was anticipating the day that NASCAR would come and say 'this is it. We‘re done. We‘ve addressed all these issues and you know where we won‘t move, we‘ve agreed on 90 percent or 75 percent of it (so) it‘s time to get this thing done and start building our future together.

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"I think everyone can interpret it in their own way," Marks said. "For me, regardless of how you want to build a narrative around it. Ultimately, it‘s NASCAR‘s sport and they said, 'We are done negotiating here, this is the deal, it‘s not going to change.‘

"Ultimately, we had to make a decision and I looked at that and I said, 'I‘m not going anywhere so we‘re going to sign it.‘ You can interpret that anyway you want. Every team and team owner has their own relationship with NASCAR and mine, the philosophy of mine is always coming from a place of partnership and collaboration so I don‘t necessarily feel like it was that way.

— Sportsnaut —