Legacy Motor Club sues broker for alleged interference in NASCAR charter deal with Rick Ware Racing
Legacy alleged in its filing in North Carolina Superior Court that T.J. Puchyr, acting as a consultant for the Cup Series team owned by seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson, violated the state Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act by using 'insider knowledge and position of trust to interfere with Legacy's Agreement with RWR.'
Legacy also accused Puchyr of making public personal attacks against Johnson when he announced last month his plans to purchase Ware's tiny race team.
The dispute began not long after Legacy entered into agreement for Johnson and his partners at Knighthead Capital Management to purchase one of Ware's two charters. Legacy says the deal is for next season, when it plans to expand to three full-time Cup cars.
RWR maintains the deal was for 2027 because it already is under contract with RFK Racing to lease that organization a charter next season. Ware says he didn't read the contract closely when he signed it to note that it read 2026, and that honoring the RFK contract and selling a second charter to Legacy next year would put the NASCAR team out of business.
Legacy in April sued Ware, but as that fight is playing out, it claims Puchyr struck a deal to buy RWR. Puchyr is a co-founder of Spire Motorsports and now acts as a motorsports consultant.
'Mr. Puchyr was well aware of the parties' dispute. He knew of the charter purchase agreement between Legacy and RWR that he helped broker,' the suit contends. 'Despite Mr. Puchyr's insider knowledge of the contract, his obligations under his consulting agreement with Legacy, Legacy's contractual right to a charter … Mr. Puchyr recently announced that he intends to purchase both of RWR's charters for himself.'
The latest filing is part of two active lawsuits surrounding charters, which are at the heart of NASCAR's business model. Having one is vital to a team's survival.
23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports are locked into a prolonged suit with NASCAR over antitrust allegations against the most popular motorsports series in the United States. 23XI, co-owned by retired NBA great Michael Jordan, and Front Row, owned by entrepreneur Bob Jenkins, last September refused to sign the charter agreements offered by NASCAR after more than two years of contentious negotiations on extensions.
The two were the only holdouts out of 15 organizations to refuse the extensions. They instead sued and are awaiting a federal judge's decision on if they will be stripped of their six combined charters as the case heads toward a Dec. 1 trial date.
Thursdays
Keep up to date on sports with Mike McIntyre's weekly newsletter.
NASCAR has said it has asked multiple times for settlement proposals but heard nothing. NASCAR also has no intention of renegotiating the charter agreements held by 30 other teams.
Johnson, despite his own legal fight, said last weekend that he supported a settlement in the antitrust case.
'I would love to see a settlement of some kind,' Johnson said. 'I really don't think that getting into a knock-down, drag-out lawsuit is good for anybody.'
___
AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Winnipeg Free Press
18 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Race on for Bristol Motor Speedway to prepare for NASCAR after hosting the MLB Speedway Classic
BRISTOL, Tenn. (AP) — The instant the Atlanta Braves and Cincinnati Braves cleared the baseball diamond inside the infield at Bristol Motor Speedway, a new clock started. 'The Last Great Colosseum' has to switch from hosting the MLB Speedway Classic and be ready for NASCAR's return to the historic racetrack hosting a playoff chase race Sept. 13. 'As soon as the last pitch is thrown, the last hit's hit, teams do their thing, postgame's taken care of, pads will start coming off the wall, and they'll work through the night to basically start disassembling so we can reassemble for the NASCAR race,' said Steve Swift, Speedway Motorsports' senior vice president of operations. Major League Baseball used BaAM to create everything from clubhouses for the Atlanta Braves and Cincinnati Reds complete with showers, strength and conditioning rooms, coach and trainers' offices and batting cages. Grandstands down both base lines with broadcast booths. Pit walls taken down to keep the Reds and Braves from crashing into them have to be rebuilt. Swift said pouring concrete walls does take time and then more time to cure properly. Additives can help concrete cure faster, but that's just one of the reconstruction issues causing obstacles. Swift said Bristol has had great partners planning for all the details of making this happen. Now it's time for Bristol Motor Speedway to go from hosting the first MLB regular-season game in the state of Tennessee and setting a record with a paid attendance of 91,032 back to its racing roots. 'It is difficult, but it's things that we like,' Swift said. 'It gives us a challenge and we like challenges.' The transformation to a baseball diamond in the infield required 17,500 tons of gravel to level the infield, then 340 tons of Pennsylvania clay for the playing surface. Braves first baseman Matt Olson said Saturday that he couldn't believe Bristol was transformed all for one game. Well, everything that can be recycled will be used somewhere after the baseball diamond is removed. Some of the gravel will be used in Bristol Motor Speedway's parking lots. Swift said they have found groups to help use some of the materials to help people still recovering from the damages left by Hurricane Helene. That includes 2x4s and plywood used for the grandstands. 'A lot of stuff is going to go to good use as far as the rebuild portion,' Swift said. 'We just need to get it out of the way so we can put back asphalt and concrete.' This new renovation schedule has a couple of days built in for protection. The target date for being finished is Sept. 7. 'There may still be some paint drying whenever they roll in with the Goodyear haulers, but we'll definitely shoot for that (Sept. 7) day,' Swift said. 'And at the latest, we're looking at Tuesday.' Thursdays Keep up to date on sports with Mike McIntyre's weekly newsletter. Bristol hosted a college football game in 2016 that drew 156,990. Now the NHL might be in Bristol's future after Sportico reported Friday that league officials would be checking out how the racetrack handled Major League Baseball. When asked about possibly hosting an outdoor hockey game, Swift only said a hockey rink would be similar to a football field and that Speedway Motorsports has big dreams for what is possible at places like Bristol. 'We've shown with football and now baseball being here, that things can take place and we can do the the things that nobody would even think about,' Swift said. ___ AP auto racing:
Winnipeg Free Press
18 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
William Byron thinks Iowa win can build momentum for NASCAR's playoffs
NEWTON, Iowa (AP) — William Byron was already locked into the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs and was second in the regular-season point standings heading into Sunday's race at Iowa Speedway. Still, Byron didn't like how things were going heading into the closing stretch of the regular season. Byron had five finishes of 27th or worse in the last eight races, and coming to a track where he has had success in the past, he wanted to regain some confidence with the playoffs approaching. 'I think we've been fast every weekend,' Byron said. 'I mean, I can't think of a week when we've been slow, it's just the results haven't come together. And it was starting to wear on us a little bit and starting to create some kind of, 'What's going to happen next?'' What happened next, though, was Byron getting his second win of the season on Sunday, gambling on fuel mileage for a win that he thought had changed the momentum of his season. Byron went the last 144 laps of the 350-lap race without a stop, and a third stage filled with caution flags helped him conserve enough fuel to get to the finish. He left Iowa Speedway, where he has now won in all three of NASCAR's series, with an 18-point lead over Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott for the regular-season title. 'This is going to kind of put the pendulum the other way,' Byron said. Byron won the season-opening Daytona 500, and has eight top-10 finishes this season, including three second-place finishes. But he had a 37th-place finish at Atlanta, a 40th-place finish at the Chicago street race, and 31st-place finish at Dover. He was 16th last week at Indianapolis, when he had to make a late pit stop for fuel. Surviving to win this one is something that crew chief Rudy Fugle expected. 'He's an awesome driver,' Fugle said. 'I think he's the best driver, all-around, in the field right now. He's mine, and I should say that. But I really think he's maturing and getting the experience to show that off. He's very well-diversified, and then he's a fighter. He's got a hard line and fights through anything. There's no quit in him.' Byron had fuel-mileage issues late at Michigan, and again last week at Indianapolis. Even with that, Fugle knew he could still gamble with his driver. 'Those are things that he's gotten better as well over the years, rolling with the punches and what happens next,' Fugle said. 'And next thing you know, you're leading and you get a chance to win.' Byron admitted he was nervous as the laps dwindled on Sunday. 'I knew what to expect,' he said. 'I knew what to look for, and all that in terms of if I ran out of fuel. But I was just thinking about preserving as much as I could, doing a lot of different things in the car, lifting early and just not using a lot of throttle percentage. So just the guys did a really good job coaching me on what to do.' Byron thought there was a little fuel left in the tank at the end. Thursdays Keep up to date on sports with Mike McIntyre's weekly newsletter. 'I felt like if I could get off of (turn) four, come into the white (flag), I could win the race,' he said. 'So that's kind of what was in my head. And that was mostly true. When I did the burnout, at the tail end of the burnout, I had the fuel pressure come up. So I don't know how many laps that would have been.' Now, Byron said, he has new fuel to get to the playoffs. 'I really feel like we needed to win a race like this, we deserve to win a race based on how we've grown all year, and it just wasn't happening,' Byron said. 'It's is just a big relief for us to have one kind of go our way. We've just been running so well this year, I feel like this is going to be a big momentum boost for our team.' ___ AP NASCAR:
Winnipeg Free Press
a day ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
William Byron has enough fuel to win NASCAR Cup race at Iowa Speedway
NEWTON, Iowa (AP) — William Byron fought off fuel worries in the closing laps to win the NASCAR Cup Series race Sunday at Iowa Speedway. Byron went the last 144 laps of the 350-lap race without a stop en route to his second victory of the season — he won the Daytona 500 in February — and 15th overall. He also took the season points lead from Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott. Byron lost gambles on fuel twice this season, at Michigan and Indianapolis, but held on with the help of a caution-filled final stage to win by 1.192 seconds over pole-sitter Chase Briscoe. 'We needed one to go our way,' said Byron, who led 141 laps. Brad Keselowski, who came into the race needing a win to get into the playoffs, was third. Keselowski, who hasn't won since the May race at Darlington last season, won the first two stages for his first stage sweep since 2019. Ryan Blaney, who won the inaugural Cup race at the 0.875-mile oval last season, finished fourth, Ryan Preece was fifth. Bubba Wallace, Alex Bowman, Carson Hocevar, Joey Logano and Austin Dillon rounded out the top 10. There were 12 caution flags. The first stage was caution-free, and the first yellow flag for any on-track incident didn't come out until Shane Van Gisbergen's spin on Lap 169. From that point, the race became a cascade of caution flags as the cars began to stack up and drivers scrambled for position. Briscoe's bumps Briscoe was involved in two late incidents. Briscoe made contact with Erik Jones coming out of Turn 4 on lap 243, causing Jones to spin. Nine laps later, Briscoe bumped Tyler Reddick, who then hit Christopher Bell, causing Reddick and Bell to spin. Wallace overcomes early problem Wallace admitted Saturday that after winning last week at Indianapolis to secure a playoff spot, he would be able to relax over the last four races of the regular season. Thursdays Keep up to date on sports with Mike McIntyre's weekly newsletter. This race wasn't relaxing — he fell down by as much as two laps before finishing sixth. John Hunter Nemechek made contact with Wallace on Lap 242, forcing the rear-end of Wallace's car to hit the wall near the start/finish line. Wallace headed to the pits after Jones' spin to have a right-rear toe link repaired. Up next The series moves to Watkins Glen International in New York next Sunday. Chris Buescher is the defending race winner. Van Gisbergen has won three straight on road/street courses. ___ AP NASCAR:
