Judge Halts Sale of Rick Ware’s NASCAR Team Amid Charter Dispute
A North Carolina judge issued a preliminary injunction preventing Rick Ware from selling his NASCAR team, Legacy Motor Club, amid a legal dispute over one of its charters.
This legal dispute arises from a prior agreement between Legacy and Rick Ware Racing earlier this year. According to this agreement, Ware committed to selling one of his two NASCAR Cup charters to Legacy, owned by seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson. Charters are essential in NASCAR, as they guarantee a car’s entry into all races and determine the financial compensation for the team.
The goal of Johnson and Legacy was to acquire this charter to expand their presence to three cars. To do this, they agreed to pay Ware $45 million for one of his two charters. Currently, Ware uses one of these charters for his own team and the other is leased to RFK Racing for the 2025 season.
Ware already had an agreement with RFK to exchange charters in 2026, under another lease. Ware argues that, because of this prior agreement, it agreed to sell a charter to Legacy in 2027.
Legacy filed a lawsuit, alleging that Ware signed a contract for a sale in 2026, an agreement that, if fulfilled, would practically put him out of business given his prior commitment to RFK. Meanwhile, Ware reached an agreement with the broker who negotiated the sale of the charter with Legacy for the latter to buy all his NASCAR equipment for $150 million.
Judge Clifton Smith of Mecklenburg Superior Court issued a court order preventing Ware from selling his organization to T.J. Puchyr, co-founder of Spire Motorsports and now a motorsports consultant. Puchyr was the intermediary in the disputed charter sale agreement.
Judge Smith’s order extends a prior temporary restraining order that had suspended the sale. Smith determined that Legacy demonstrated a high probability of success in its case, that it was likely to suffer irreparable harm if the injunction was not issued, and that the potential harm to Legacy outweighed any potential harm to Ware.
Also, Smith maintained the $5 million bail that Legacy had presented.
The trial is scheduled for January, but Legacy has filed a second lawsuit against Puchyr for interfering with its agreement with Ware. Legacy has also terminated its consulting agreement with Puchyr.
