Judge blocks sale of Rick Ware Racing amid charter dispute

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A North Carolina judge on Friday granted Legacy Motor Club a preliminary injunction blocking Rick Ware from selling his NASCAR team during a battle over one of his charters.

Legacy and Rick Ware Racing agreed earlier this year that Ware would sell one of his two Cup Series charters, which are similar to franchises in other sports, to Legacy, which is owned by seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson. A charter guarantees a car entry into all 38 NASCAR races and determines how a team is paid.

Johnson and Legacy wanted the charter to expand to three-time entries and agreed to give Ware $45 million for one of his two. He currently uses one of them for his own team, with the other leased to RFK Racing for 2025.

Ware already had a deal with RFK to swap charters in 2026 under another lease agreement. He has claimed that because of that existing deal, he agreed to sell Legacy one charter in 2027.

Legacy sued and said Ware signed a contract for a 2026 sale — a deal that would essentially put him out of business since he already has promised a charter to RFK. In the meantime, he struck a deal with the broker who negotiated the charter deal with Legacy for the broker to buy his entire NASCAR team for $150 million.

But Mecklenburg Superior Court Judge Clifton Smith on Friday gave Legacy an injunction that stops Ware from selling the organization to T.J. Puchyr, a co-founder of Spire Motorsports who is now a motorsports consultant. Puchyr brokered the charter sale agreement in dispute.

Smith's order expands an earlier temporary restraining order he had issued that paused the sale. Smith ruled that Legacy showed the likelihood of success on the merits of its case, was likely to sustain irreparable loss unless an injunction was issued, and that the potential harm to Legacy outweighed any potential harm to Ware.

Smith kept in place the $5 million bond Legacy posted.

The trial is currently scheduled for January, but Legacy has filed a second suit against Puchyr for interfering with its deal with Ware. Legacy has also terminated its consulting agreement with Puchyr.

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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing