Daniel Suarez reacts after winning Sunday's NASCAR cup race at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Ga.
HAMPTON, Ga. — Daniel Suarez knows he will return to Atlanta Motor Speedway as a playoff contender on Sept. 8.
Suarez also can count on retaining his spot on Trackhouse Racing's team when the NASCAR Cup Series makes its 2025 stops in Atlanta. The popular driver from Monterrey, Mexico, ended speculation about his future with the team by winning Sunday's Cup race in a memorable three-wide finish.
It was only the second career win in 253 Cup races for Suarez and the first since June 2022 at Sonoma. A winless 2023 raised speculation about the future for Suarez entering his 2024 contract year with Trackhouse Racing. Co-owner Justin Marks insisted Sunday he never saw this season as an audition for the driver.
"On the hot seat? He just didn't have the year that he wanted last year," Marks said. "But we know that he can get it done, and he's a guy that can get it done. I don't envision necessarily a situation where Daniel is not a driver for Trackhouse Racing."
Suarez scoffed at suggestions he should be relieved to know he secured his spot in the playoff field in only the second race of the season or that he may no longer have to worry about his future with Trackhouse.
Instead, Suarez emphasized the goal of winning more than one race and competing for a championship. Atlanta will host the opening race of the playoff schedule.
Bolstered by the addition of new crew chief Max Swiderski, Suarez says it's time to win more races and forget about contract talk that continued after he signed a one-year extension in 2023.
"I never felt like I was in the hot seat," Suarez said.
"A lot of people were talking about it. ... I knew that last year wasn't the year that I really wanted. ... We worked hard, but we were not efficient. We were missing something. We were not firing on all eight cylinders."
Suarez said even before Sunday's win he could sense a change in the team's direction. He finished only 34th in the season-opening Daytona 500 but led two laps.
Suarez finished strong in his Chevrolet to narrowly beat Ryan Blaney and Kyle Busch in the closest finish in Atlanta history and the third-closest finish in any Cup Series race with electronic scoring since 1993.
Talks over a revenue-sharing deal between NASCAR and its teams have broken down in recent weeks.
The NASCAR season is under way, with 38 races to determine another stock car racing champion in the 76th season of the top motorsports series in the United States.
There is a serious problem for NASCAR and its teams: Negotiations on a new revenue-sharing model have deteriorated. In mid-February, representatives from five teams told The Associated Press they have hired top antitrust sports attorney Jeffrey Kessler as an adviser.
The move was a power play by the 15 teams holding the 36 charters that guarantee entry into every race, a message that they won't be bullied in the negotiations. Here's what to know about this off-the-track brawl with millions at stake:
What are charters?
The charters are the equivalent of having a franchise within NASCAR, but they aren't permanent and can be revoked by the series. Their value is set by the current market rate, but the details are not disclosed. A charter purchased by Spire Motorsports last year was sold by Live Fast Motorsports reportedly for $40 million — an enormous jump from the $6 million Spire spent in 2018 when it became the first team to buy a charter from another team.
NASCAR determined which teams received charters in 2016. There are four charters that have not been offered for sale and are on hold by NASCAR for use if a fourth manufacturer enters the Cup Series.
The current agreement expires at the end of this season and teams have been trying for two years to get a better deal from NASCAR, including making the charters permanent.
NASCAR claimed it needed to first complete a new media rights package and a new $7.7 billion television rights deal was announced in December. NASCAR's economic offer to the teams came shortly after.
The five-member negotiating committee for the race teams told AP that NASCAR was clear: "We've been told, 'This is all there is; there is no flexibility.' That's not a negotiation," said Curtis Polk, part owner of 23XI Racing with Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin.
NASCAR's financials
The stability of NASCAR has ebbed and flowed for years, with much made about empty seats in the stands or viewership numbers season to season. The series has weathered it all and the TV deal is considered substantial.
A recent S&P Global Ratings Report sees ongoing strength in live attendance, sponsorship and advertising-related revenue for NASCAR this year, and added that the new rights deal "provides good revenue visibility" through 2031.
The report also raised its rating on NASCAR's credit, citing the series' ability to pay down debt while still growing revenue. S&P expects NASCAR to see 6% to 8% growth this year in its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, a standard accounting measurement.
S&P also expects a positive cash flow of $135 million to $145 million — which could be reduced to $85 million after infrastructure upgrades — that could be used to further trim its debt.
Polk noted the report proves NASCAR is financially stable and has had little trouble paying down the nearly $1.5 billion it borrowed in 2019 to take its race tracks private.
What is the issue?
The teams want more than just a larger financial stake.
In addition to an increase in the percentage the teams receive from the media rights deal, the teams want the charters to become permanent the way franchises are in other leagues. With so many of NASCAR's top team owners in their 70s — Roger Penske turned 87 last week — they want their investments to become legacies they can leave to their families.
NASCAR has refused to even consider making the charters permanent.
What can teams do?
The teams are independent from NASCAR, which sanctions the 38 races each year and distributes the purses along with revenue from licensing, merchandise and other streams. It also controls a swath of top-tier tracks.
The teams do not want to create a break-away series of their own, citing the demise of CART when Tony George took the Indianapolis 500 away and formed a rival league. Two open-wheel series were not sustainable and in 2008 reunified for what is now IndyCar. The damage was already done, though; what was once the top U.S. motorsports series was bypassed by NASCAR during the split.
The teams also have no plans at this time to promote a race outside of NASCAR's supervision. They want to make a deal.
Who is Jeffrey Kessler?
The attorney is a specialist in sports labor and antitrust disputes. He helped secure a 9-0 win in 2021 at the U.S. Supreme Court in NCAA v. Alston, a major case on athlete compensation. He also led the U.S. women's soccer team in its successful fight for equal pay as well as litigations for current free agency rules in the NBA and the NFL.
Although retaining Kessler could mean the teams are exploring litigation, the negotiating representatives insisted the attorney has so far only been brought on to advise them in negotiations.
The Race Team Alliance met at Daytona International Speedway, NASCAR declined to attend, and the teams claim NASCAR is no longer negotiating with them as a group. Instead, they believe NASCAR is trying to talk to teams individually to create division in what is now a unified front.
What if there's no deal?
NASCAR could remake the entire eligibility system and write its own rules for distribution of revenue. NASCAR does not have a collective bargaining agreement for teams and even though the RTA was formed to fight this battle, it is not a union.
The teams could make an antitrust challenge on NASCAR's control of the market and argue NASCAR operates stock car racing as a monopoly.
But NASCAR has won legal battles before, including a 2009 case in which Kentucky Speedway failed to prove its denial to host a Cup Series race constituted an illegal monopoly.
