Chevrolet is updating the Camaro that they race in the NASCAR Cup Series for 2026 and bringing the most drastic changes to the body since the launch of the Next Gen car. While it may appear similar to the outgoing car at first glance, the Camaro ZL1 Cup car sees updates to every available body panel that NASCAR allows and is poised to be faster at short tracks and intermediates along with improvements for drag at superspeedways like Daytona and Talladega.
NASCAR updated some of the cooling requirements after the debut season of the seventh generation Cup car which required every manufacturer to make body updates. Chevy got a bit behind the Ford and Toyota on aero as these updates were deployed and we’re digging into the details of how they plan to catch up and be faster in 2026.
How Cup Car Aero Works
Kyle Busch, Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
Photo by: Jared C. Tilton / Getty Images
Those radiator exit ducts on the hood have been a large focus for the manufacturers that participate in the series because they are one of the few areas where they can differentiate themselves from an aerodynamic performance perspective. They allow them to make the choice of how they want to balance downforce and drag compared to engine temperatures by modifying the airflow out of the radiator.
Why Chevy Is Redesigning Their Cup Car
Alex Bowman, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, Joey Logano, Team Penske Ford, Kyle Larson, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Photo by: Chris Graythen – Getty Images
We checked in with Dr. Eric Warren who is the Vice President of Global Motorsports Competition at General Motors to find out why they decided to make changes and learn the details of how they anticipate making the Camaro Cup car faster in 2026.
“I think for us, particularly the past several years, we’ve kind of felt like we had a little bit of a deficit and we saw the short track performance of the other teams kind of keep advancing. And some of that’s just the aero balance, the amount of front downforce versus the amount of rear, and so that starts to constrain you a little bit on what ride height you can run. So if you’re trying to look at even the intermediates, it’s going to run the maximum downforce, you end up with the Next Gen car with this tail down attitude and it’s a little bit opposite of the old generation car where it was, the splitter you’re trying to cut atoms off of the asphalt as you went around the track. Now it’s a little bit the opposite, you actually want the back down and the front up just to get airflow under the car the right way.”
It’s not surprising that the Camaro needed to catch up to the Camry and the Mustang at short tracks because the other cars had been fully redesigned since NASCAR updated the cooling requirements and introduced a new underbody for short tracks and road courses while the Camaro only received some front end tweaks in 2023. It would seem simple at first glance to just adapt things to the changing aero environment and match the other manufacturers but the car needs to be aerodynamically balanced from the front to the rear and any airflow that changes across the car can also impact cooling along with a variety of other factors as Dr. Warren shared below.
“So everybody had migrated towards a little more front aero balance. And so that drove it, I think, as much as anything, like how do I get that airflow, when you start saying, okay, I need more front downforce, but I need more air to come through for cooling. Those are kind of contradictory things typically, so then you’re just trying to manage that and where that air goes and then again, a little bit of some luck in traffic, hopefully that behaves and don’t lose as much downforce, and try to keep that similar. That’s been one of the hallmarks of the Camaro Next Gen cars. It’s been fairly well behaved in traffic and we wanted to maintain that.”
NASCAR Cooling Requirement Changes
Nose of Ross Chastain’s No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet
Photo by: Chris Graythen via Getty Images
We checked in with Dr. Eric Jacuzzi who is the Vice President of Vehicle Performance at NASCAR to learn more about the constraints placed on the body design from the NASCAR side and he confirmed the cooling requirements that have been one of the big drivers of the evolving Next Gen body designs. Dr. Jacuzzi shared that NASCAR initially let each manufacturer choose how efficient they wanted to make their radiator outlets which meant that it was fully up to them to choose whether to prioritize aero or engine temperatures.
“We didn’t actually specify a minimum. We would just test at a certain velocity ratio and say, okay, it needs to be between here and here, because the radiator is flowing during the test.
That first round of designs ended up going in both directions with some manufacturers overestimating the cooling demands which meant they left some aero optimization on the table while giving their engines better cooling while others underestimated which gave them better aero performance but caused the engines to heat up at certain tracks.
“We really initially just left it up to the manufacturer’s best judgment, and I think it was pretty consistent across the board that they all sort of overestimated or underestimated the cooling demands on the engine, so they didn’t have as much margin as they thought on that first go around.”
Eventually NASCAR decided to prescribe some minimum requirements for cooling and the percentage of air that must flow through the radiator.
“From a performance perspective we make sure that the maximum velocity ratio achievable with no blocker plate or anything in that system is over ten percent.”
Once those changes were instituted, each manufacturer had to make sure that their design fit within the required windows whether due to the requirements from NASCAR or the requirements from their engine builders so all of the redesigned their radiator duct exits in 2023 which we saw as new louvers on the hoods of the cars. These updated exits were a compromise for all of the manufacturers because of how much they impacted the overall aero balance of the cars but Ford and Toyota likely weren’t terribly worried because they were already designing complete new bodies for 2024 to match their new road cars. Chevrolet didn’t have a new road car in the pipeline so they had to adapt their current body in order to balance the changes to the radiator flow which is why we saw changes to the nose and the hood of the Camaro in order to go along with the updated louvers.
Chevy ran that Camaro with the slightly modified front end until the end of the 2025 season but it became clear to them that they needed a full redesign in order to have a car built around the latest cooling requirements so they decided to build an accessories package for the roadgoing Camaro ZL1 that they could use as the basis for an updated NASCAR Cup car.
Why GM Chose To Update The Camaro For 2026
Kyle Larson, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Photo by: Meg Oliphant / Getty Images
Many were surprised that there wasn’t a completely new car racing in 2026 but with the Camaro being out of production, the engineers were limited to items that they could offer through the Chevrolet Performance Catalog. GM engineers ended up designing the Carbon Performance Package for the Camaro ZL1 which includes a grille from the ZL1 1LE, a new splitter with unique carbon-fiber end caps, a carbon-fiber hood insert, carbon-fiber rocker extensions, and a large carbon-fiber rear wing with a wicker bill. When those parts are installed on the ZL1, they bring aerodynamic downforce on the car within 5% of a ZL1 1LE. Those design elements being effective is not a surprise because many of them were used as a baseline for what we will see on the Camaro ZL1 Cup car in 2026.
Every panel of the 2026 Camaro Cup car appears to be more aggressive but the headlight area looks to be a callback to their original 2022 design and that’s not by accident. Once all of the body submissions were completed ahead of the launch of the Next Gen car, NASCAR decided to use the 2022 Chevrolet Camaro as the target car for their downforce and drag window so what that meant is that any future car design would be measured against that specific car. When Toyota and Ford designed new bodies they had to be tweaked in order to get as close to the window of that target but since Chevrolet did not have a new car they were kind of stuck since the target was a variant of their current car.
How GM Redesigned The Camaro Cup Car For 2026
One of the most apparent differences on the 2026 Cup car are the hood louvers. They are now larger and look similar in shape to what we’ve seen from Ford and Toyota as they redesigned their cars. This isn’t by accident as Dr. Warren shared when we asked him about the design.
“You’re trying to maximize the exit area and stay within that envelope, you’re then just trying to make sure the flow stays attached. You learn a little bit as you go about how a car behaves in traffic and then what happens when the hot air comes out?
How does it flow around the rest of the car? Is it hitting the spoiler? Is it not hitting the spoiler? I think everybody’s kind of migrated to a similar solution because, at first you’re like, hey, I want the car to do this when it’s closed off or not.“
The louvers work in conjunction with a throttle plate that can be installed as a tuning tool by teams in order to manage downforce and drag on the car for each different type of track that they’re racing. Teams can choose to compromise a little cooling at some tracks in exchange for downforce but the louver design has to be able to support a wide range of airflow in order to facilitate that.On the other end of the spectrum, the louver design has to be able to support enough cooling flow for special situations like racing on short tracks or racing in places with reduced cooling because of reduced air density like Mexico City.
Outside of the louvers, there are a variety of changes to the front bumper and the sides of the car and most of those were built as a correlation to the Carbon Performance Package that was released for the roadgoing ZL1. We can see the end of the splitter and the rockers on the production car directly translate to the Cup car bodywork and much of that is a combination of chasing downforce while also trying to balance downforce and drag across the entire car. The rear of the car also sees a change with the taillights now being a prominent piece of bodywork compared to the decal versions of the outgoing car.
Production Car Changes To Match The New Cup Car
Dr. Jacuzzi shared that they discussed a variety of options with GM on how to make complementary production car changes to match an updated Cup car and they settled on an accessories package because making significant bodywork or car changes would require crash testing. Dr. Warren shared that all of the work that went into the Cup car updates and the Carbon Performance Package for the Camaro ZL1 road car was a collaborative effort because the two groups are so deeply integrated. “The beautiful part about GM Motorsports is that we are integrated very heavily in the production engineering side of GM. So I actually report to Ken Morris, who’s the head of all the global product programs. I sit on the same staff as all the other heads of all the car programs and performance car programs.” The production car team and motorsports team worked together to design and test the accessories package which allowed them to increase the downforce on the Camaro ZL1 road car by 361-percent at 155 mph. This also brings the total downforce of the ZL1 within a few percent of the ZL1 1LE. The package is already in the Chevrolet Performance parts catalog under part number 19541257 and according to GM Authority, the Chevy Camaro ZL1 Carbon Performance Package starts at $17,495 and goes up to $21,375 with the optional Tech Bronze wheels.
Testing And Debut Of The 2026 Camaro Cup Car
That 2026 Camaro Cup car has already seen some track time as it was used for a tire test at Bristol Motor Speedway last month with Alex Bowman and will be used for some additional testing this winter at North Wilkesboro Speedway. Chevy tells us that they’re working on a show car that should debut over the next few months and give us a better view of all the details we’ve seen in the renderings and then all the Chevy teams will hit the track with the updated car at Bowman Gray for The Clash in February.
CHARLOTTE — NASCAR teams went to the sanctioning body in early 2022 asking for an improved revenue model and argued the system at the time was unsustainable, the president of the series testified Thursday in the antitrust case lodged against the top motorsports series in the United States.
Steve O’Donnell, named president of NASCAR earlier this year, was at that March meeting when representatives of four teams asked that the negotiating window on a new charter agreement open early because they were fighting for their financial survival. The negotiating window was not supposed to open until July 2023.
O’Donnell testified that in that first meeting, four-time series champion Jeff Gordon, now vice chair of Hendrick Motorsports, asked specifically if the Florida-based France family was “open to a new model?”
Ben Kennedy, the great-grandson of NASCAR founder Bill France Sr., told Gordon yes.
But O’Donnell testified that NASCAR chairman Jim France was opposed to a new revenue model.
Thus began more than two years of bitter negotiations on a new charter agreement that was finalized in September 2024. The teams had asked in that first meeting for a deal to be reached by July 2022.
When the final deal was presented to the teams on the eve of the 2024 playoff opener, they were given a six-hour deadline to sign the charter agreements. All but two of 15 organizations signed; Front Row Motorsports and Michael Jordan-owned 23XI Racing refused to sign and instead sued, bringing the case to federal court for what is expected to be a two-week trial.
O’Donnell testified that the team representatives had very specific requests: maximized television revenue, the creation of a more competitive landscape, a new cost model and a potential cost cap.
NASCAR spent the next few months in internal discussions on how to approach the charter renewal process, said O’Donnell, who was called as an adverse witness for the plaintiffs. NASCAR acknowledged the teams were financially struggling, and worried they might create a breakaway series similar to the LIV golf league.
In a presentation made to the board, O’Donnell listed various options that both the teams and NASCAR could take. O’Donnell noted the teams could boycott races, build their cars internally, and race at non-NASCAR owned tracks, or potentially sell their charters to Liberty Media, the commercial rights holder for Formula 1.
“We knew the industry was challenged,” O’Donnell testified.
As far as NASCAR’s options, O’Donnell told the board it could lock down an exclusivity agreement with tracks not owned by NASCAR, dissolve the charter system, or partner directly with the drivers.
A charter is the equivalent of the franchise model used by other sports leagues, but in NASCAR it guarantees a team a spot in the field for all 38 races plus a designated percentage of revenue. The extensions that began this year upped the guaranteed money for every chartered car to $12.5 million in annual revenue, from $9 million.
Denny Hamlin, co-owner of 23XI, and Front Row owner Bob Jenkins have both testified it costs $20 million to bring a single car to the track for all 38 races. That figure does not include any overhead, operating costs or a driver’s salary.
Jenkins opened the fourth day of the trial with continued testimony. On Wednesday the fast-food franchiser said he was a passionate NASCAR fan who fulfilled a longtime dream when he was finally able to own a car in the top racing series in the United States.
But he said he has lost $100 million since becoming a team owner in the early 2000s — and that’s even with a 2021 victory in the Daytona 500. He said Thursday he “held his nose” when he signed the 2016 charter agreements because he didn’t think the deal was very good for the teams.
When the extensions came in 2024 the weekend the playoffs opened at Atlanta Motor Speedway, he said the 112-page document went “virtually backward in so many ways.” He refused to sign and joined 23XI in filing a lawsuit.
Jenkins said no owners he has spoken to are happy about the new charter agreement because it falls short of so many of their asks. He refused to sign because “I’d reached my tipping point.”
Jenkins said he was upset that Jim France refused a meeting the week before the final 2025 offers were presented with four owners who represented nine charters, only to learn France was talking to other team owners.
“Our voice was not being heard,” said Jenkins, who believes NASCAR rammed the 2025 agreement through. “They did put a gun to our head and got a domino effect — teams that said they’d never sign saw their neighbor sign.”
Jenkins also said teams are upset about the current Next Gen car, which was introduced in 2022 as a cost-saving measure. The car was supposed to cost $205,000 but parts must be purchased from specified NASCAR vendors and teams cannot make any repairs themselves so the actual cost is now closer to double the price.
“To add $150,000 to $200,000 to the cost of the car — I don’t think any of the teams anticipated that,” Jenkins testified. “What’s anti-competitive is I don’t own that car. I can’t use that car anywhere else.”
Nitro Motorsports is proud to announce that Gian Buffomante will return to the team’s Trans Am Series Presented by Pirelli CUBE 3 Architecture TA2 Series program for the 2026 season. Building on his strong rookie-year momentum and setting his sights firmly on the championship fight, Buffomante will aim for race wins and podium results in his quest to lead Nitro Motorsports to the championship title in the upcoming 2026 season.
Buffomante delivered an impressive 2025 rookie campaign, quickly establishing himself as a consistent frontrunner within one of North America’s most competitive road racing programs. Throughout the year, he earned multiple top-five finishes, several podium-contending runs, and showcased development in both qualifying pace and race craft. His ability to adapt to the demanding and heavy TA2 platform earned him recognition throughout the paddock as one of the drivers to watch in the future.
Returning for 2026, Buffomante is focused on elevating his performance even further as he now enters the season with a full year of experience and a stronger understanding of the TA2 car, the competition, and the tracks.
“I’m really excited to be back with Nitro Motorsports for the 2026 TA2 season and make a run at the title,” explained Gian Buffomante. “Last year was all about learning—new car, new tracks, new team, and new challenges—and I feel like I grew a ton throughout the season. Now, with that experience behind me, the goal is clear, and I want to fight for wins and be in the hunt for the championship. Nitro Motorsports has given me everything I need to take that next step, and I’m ready to go after it.”
Nitro Motorsports Co-Owner Nick Tucker believes Buffomante’s progression in 2025 is just the beginning of what he’s capable of achieving.
“Gian impressed us from the moment he stepped into a TA2 car,” added Tucker. “Obviously, there is always the rookie learning curve that involves some bumps and bruises, but his speed, composure, and ability to learn quickly made his rookie season a strong one. With the experience he gained in 2025 and the work he’s already putting into 2026, we fully expect him to be at the front of the field and fighting to put the Nitro Motorsports brand on the top step of the podium. Gian is hungry, focused, and ready—and we’re excited to support him in making a championship run.”
Buffomante will join a deep and competitive Nitro Motorsports lineup for 2026, with preseason testing already underway and preparations accelerating toward the season opener.
For more information on Nitro Motorsports, please contact Nick Tucker via email HERE or visit them online at www.RaceNitro.com.
JAS Motorsport is taking it upon itself to bring back one of the greatest sports cars in Japanese automotive history.
After months of teases, the Italian racing team has finally unveiled its Acura NSX restomod. Dubbed the Tensei—which means “rebirth” in Japanese—the vehicle will feature a body designed by Pininfarina and what is promised to be a competition-derived powertrain.
If you’re wondering why a racing team is building a restomod, it’s because JAS and Honda, Acura’s parent company, have a long history together. Although JAS, which was founded in 1995, initially worked with Alfa Romeo, it has been an official Honda partner since 1998. It also has direct experience with the NSX—which was sold as a Honda model outside of the U.S.—having developed the GT3 racer for the car’s second generation.
JAS Motorsport Tensei
JAS Motorsport
That know-how has helped inspire one of the more intriguing restomods we’ve seen this year. And a lot of that is due to how it looks, since the car wears a carbon-fiber body designed by Pinifarina. The legendary studio didn’t try to reimagine the NSX, which debuted all the way back in 1990, for today; it simply refined it. The low-slung coupe still features pop-up headlights and an integrated rear wing, but its lines are smoother and its aerodynamic elements are larger. If the long-rumored third-generation NSX looks anything like this restomod, we imagine there will be a lot of happy enthusiasts out there.
We may know what the Tensei will look like, but we’re still waiting on some vital information. Mainly, what will power the restomod? JAS’s reveal was light on details, other than to say that the vehicle will feature “cutting-edge technology and advanced mechanics” informed by the team’s experience in motorsports. In October, shortly after the first teaser images of the car began circulating, Road & Track and Motor1.com reported that it would come with a naturally aspirated V-6 mated to a six-speed manual. The car will also be available with either a left- or right-hand-drive configuration.
JAS Motorsport
We’ll also have to see how much JAS’s NSX restomod will cost, as no price has been announced for the Tensei as of press time. A price tag in the high six figures doesn’t seem out of the question, especially since first-generation NSXs can command up to $1 million at auction these days.
Authors
Bryan Hood
Senior Staff Writer
Bryan Hood is a digital staff writer at Robb Report. Before joining the magazine, he worked for the New York Post, Artinfo and New York magazine, where he covered everything from celebrity gossip to…
The 2025 Snowbird Outlaw Nationals presented by Motion Raceworks at Bradenton Motorsports Park is officially underway with Thursday qualifying. Due to rain in the Sunday forecast, race officials moved up the event schedule. The plan is now to complete qualifying on Thursday and Friday before going into eliminations Saturday and crowning winners on Saturday night.
The historic event serves as the opening race of the second annual Drag Illustrated Winter Series presented by J&A Service, a three-race Pro Mod series paying out more than $275,000 to race winners and the series champion. The event also includes Pro 10.5, True 10.5 N/T, Lil Gangstas, Limited Drag Radial, Ultra Street and more.
Tune in to the official event livestream on FloRacing here: https://flosports.link/46edcdu
Find additional class qualifying results on the Bradenton Motorsports Park Facebook page here.
pro mod q2
pro mod q1
pro 10.5 q2
pro 10.5 q1
This story was originally published on December 4, 2025.
The antitrust lawsuit trial between NASCAR and 23XI Racing/Front Row Motorsports is bringing out emotional testimonies and mind-bending numbers every day. The courtroom drama has been intense, and fans are eager to see what the outcome will be. After all, it will have a bearing on the future of the sport.
Ken Schrader, however, doesn’t see anything good on the horizon. The former superstar gave his take on the matter in a video on Kenny Wallace’s YouTube channel. Wallace mentioned how all the other team owners must be looking at 23XI Racing as a champion.
In response, Schrader hit everyone with a strong dose of the reality that would be inevitable if 23XI Racing won in the end. He pointed out how several team owners were trying to convince 23XI Racing to settle with NASCAR before the trial.
Once the trial began, they’re now hoping for the team to emerge victorious. “If they do win, what’s it going to do? Began Schrader.
“At what cost? What’s it going to do to our sport? What’s it going to do to the attendance? How many fans are we going to piss off? How many sponsors are we going to piss off?” He continued.
“‘Hey, we’re not involved in this thing as a sponsor. We’re not involved in this deal to be in the middle of something like this. We’ll sponsor something else.’ You know, nothing really good can come from it,” added Schrader, whose point shed light outcome that many have been conveniently ignoring thus far.
The next course of action, should 23XI Racing prevail, is something NASCAR’s elite has to plan for.
What could happen if NASCAR loses?
Judge Kenneth D. Bell has warned teams multiple times during these proceedings that going to trial could have severe consequences. NASCAR might even be ordered to sell all its race tracks if it fails to end up winning the case.
What this means is that a new order of things will have to be implemented. The charter system could be dismantled, the promotion and the teams could suffer major financial damages, and the France family might have to sell parts of its property.
As Schrader pointed out, this isn’t what the TV partners or the sponsors signed up for. They might be forced to cut their losses and take their business elsewhere.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Front Row Motorsports owner Bob Jenkins has testified in an antitrust case against NASCAR, accusing it of monopolistic practices. Jenkins, a passionate NASCAR fan, claims he’s lost $100 million since becoming a team owner. He joined 23XI Racing, owned by Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin, in a lawsuit against NASCAR. They argue the charter agreements are unfair. Jenkins says NASCAR’s final offer was insulting and forced owners to sign without negotiation. NASCAR contends it has done nothing wrong and claims the charter system has created significant value. The trial could reshape NASCAR’s framework.
Michael Jordan arrives in the Western District of North Carolina on Monday Dec 1, 2025 for the start of the antitrust trial between 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports against NASCAR, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Jenna Fryer)
FULL STORY
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Front Row Motorsports owner Bob Jenkins was back on the stand Thursday to testify on the fourth day of the explosive antitrust case that accuses NASCAR of being a monopolistic bully in violation of federal antitrust laws.
Jenkins began his testimony Wednesday, and the fast-food franchiser said he was a passionate NASCAR fan who fulfilled a longtime dream when he was finally able to own a car in the top racing series in the United States.
But he said he has lost $100 million since becoming a team owner in the early 2000s — and that’s even with a 2021 victory in the Daytona 500. His love of the sport and belief that it can be profitable have kept him going but says a no-win revenue model led Front Row to join 23XI Racing in a federal lawsuit against NASCAR.
23XI is owned by Basketball Hall of Famer Michael Jordan and three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin. Jordan has the funding to fight NASCAR, and Jenkins joined the battle when he became offended by NASCAR’s “take-it-or-leave-it” offer on charter agreements.
A charter is the equivalent of the franchise model used by other sports leagues, but in NASCAR it guarantees a team a spot in the field for all 38 races plus a designated percentage of revenue. Front Row was one of the teams that received two charters for free when NASCAR created the system in 2016 and Jenkins thought the agreements were lousy then — but a step in the right direction.
All 15 Sprint Cup organizations fought for more than two years for better terms on the charter extensions that began this year. But when NASCAR’s final offer was presented at 6 p.m. on a Friday last year with six hours to sign the 112-page document, Jenkins balked because it went “virtually backward in so many ways.”
“It was insulting, it went so far backward,” he testified Wednesday. “NASCAR wanted to run the governance with an iron fist; it was like taxation without representation. NASCAR has the right to do whatever it wants.”
He said he was “honestly very hurt” by the sequence of events and believed NASCAR “knew we had to blindly sign it. Some of these owners have $500-$600 million facilities, long-term sponsors. They couldn’t walk away from that.”
Jenkins testified that Joe Gibbs personally apologized to Jenkins for signing the deal, and most owners reluctantly signed the agreement.
“Not a single owner said, ‘I was happy to sign it.’ Not a single one,” he testified. “100% of the owners think the charter system is good. The charter agreement is not.”
Front Row and 23XI were the only two organizations out of 15 that refused to sign and instead went to court in a trial that could completely rework NASCAR’s framework.
The extensions ended more than two years of bitter negotiations in which neither NASCAR or the teams budged.
Team losses
NASCAR executive vice president in charge of strategy Scott Prime testified Wednesday that a study he worked on as a consultant found the longevity of the sport was in danger if NASCAR didn’t act to improve the health of their race teams.
Prime said NASCAR became concerned about the threat of a breakaway stock car series during 2024 charter negotiations.
Jeffrey Kessler, attorney for the teams, told the jury Monday that over a three-year period almost $400 million was paid to the France Family Trust and a 2023 evaluation by Goldman Sachs found NASCAR to be worth $5 billion. The pretrial discovery process revealed NASCAR made more than $100 million in 2024.
NASCAR contends it is doing nothing wrong and has not restrained trade or commerce by its teams. The series says the original charters were given for free to teams when the system was created in 2016 and the demand for them created a market of $1.5 billion in equity for chartered organizations.
The new charter agreement upped the guaranteed money for every chartered car to $12.5 million in annual revenue, from $9 million. But Hamlin and Jenkins have both testified it costs $20 million to bring a single car to the track for all 38 races and that figure does not include any overhead, operating costs or a driver’s salary.
Both testified they don’t have the ability to slash costs and teams are too reliant on outside sponsorship to survive.
“It’s offensive to say I’ve overspent. We have a model that works for us,” Jenkins testified. “I have never turned a profit. And it’s not from malpractice. The level we compete at is just so expensive.”
Prime testified as much and noted in his consulting role he discovered in 2014 that teams lost a combined $85 million, or an average of $1.3 million a car. He also learned that under the system before charters, when cars had to qualify for a race based on speed, a team would lose $700,000 if it failed to make the field.
The trial is expected to last two weeks with Jordan, Rick Hendrick and Roger Penske still set to testify. Jordan has been in court each day and is occasionally demonstrative, either laughing at funny remarks or shaking his head at testimony he disagrees with.
NASCAR is owned and operated by the France family, which founded the series in 1948.
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