Charter deal means driver contracts are being reworked
DAYTONA BEACH, Florida – The finalization of NASCAR’s charter system doesn’t mean negotiations are over. Far from it, in fact.
Because of the ownership structure agreement that helps ensure equity for team owners at the time of sale, driver contracts are being renegotiated and recalculated as a result of the financial changes across the sport in the 2016 season.
“I think anyone would like to know before the terms of their employment changes but that is not the situation,” Brad Keselowski said. “I am aware of the fact that I am a race car driver and no matter what happens I am still going to be okay and I am not looking for anyone to feel bad for me. On the other side it is not ideal.”
Keselowski hits the major point of this post; it’s not to feel sorry about Sprint Cup drivers. They’re still some of the most financially fortunate people on the planet and will continue to probably make more than you, me and your best friend combined. But this is to rather point out that the charter system is changing things for drivers too, even if it’s primarily in the language of their contracts.
Most, if not all, driver contracts include a percentage of purse earnings. While a lot of big time drivers also receive a set salary from his or her team, and up and coming or part-time driver may be on a contract primarily contingent upon purse money from race winnings.
NASCAR recently changed the public nature of race purse winnings; Sprint Cup Series box scores will not longer have a driver’s winnings listed. It’s because the numbers were likely to be substantially different than they were in 2015 and other years.
The overall percentage of revenue NASCAR teams receive didn’t change, however charter teams are now guaranteed a certain amount of money divvied from a fund dispersed at the end of the season. Since the way that money was distributed changed, contracts reflecting the previous setup had to change as a result.
“Every driver has a concern if you’re paid based on the purse, right?” Jamie McMurray rhetorically asked. “That’s how most contracts were structured is that you get a salary and you get paid based on the purse; and so, that structuring changed, right? It’s all for the better but everyone’s contracts has to be re-looked-at and re-worked. From what I know, from talking to the drivers and our team and listening to what other teams are saying, like all the owners are really fair in making that right, it just takes a different contract than what we had.”
Indeed, the pervasive sentiment about contract renegotiations was overwhelmingly positive. Drivers spoke confidently that their employers would do what’s necessary to make things right.
“I may go into the Daytona 500 not actually knowing what I’m earning, but I think the relationship I have with my team has been good,” Casey Mears said. “All the conversations have been, ‘Hey, how can we get you back to, based on this new format, what we negotiated?’ There’s definitely a lot of internal conversations going on having to do with that. I would think if there’s anything, I don’t want to say it was negative, but the timing of it was not good for the drivers going into the race. But I think the majority of the teams are going to settle it and make it right.”
And some said their teams had already taken care of the new contracts.
“I think everybody knew there was going to be some contractual stuff that we had to work through,” Harvick said. “For me, I wanted it to happen as openly and as quick as possible because I didn’t want it to linger and have things be brought up that really didn’t need to be brought up and cause tension between teams.”
“That was my ultimate goal. I’m not going to sit around and pinch pennies just because of the fact I think I’m being treated unfairly. I want to just be treated fairly. That was really all that I was looking for. I felt like our team did that.”
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
