NASCAR nuclear option to eliminate ALL Cup Series teams revealed

An explosive NASCAR plan to react to a potential boycott by Cup Series teams has been revealed, including a nuclear option to eliminate all teams.

The sport is involved in a bitter court battle right now with the 23XI Racing team - co-owned by current superstar driver Denny Hamlin and basketball great Michael Jordan. They claim NASCAR’s actions violate antitrust values.

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As part of that case, new revelations show just how NASCAR was planning to react to various potential scenarios back in 2024. And those revelations are spicy on another level.

They range from how the folks in Charlotte would have responded to short-term boycotts by Cup Series teams, to potentially dissolving all charters. Wow…

The internal NASCAR presentation - which was named ‘Project Gold Codes’ - was filed by 23XI and Front Row in court last week, and it is explosive stuff.

Dated June 2024, it said that a boycott or exit by just some teams would have led to NASCAR dipping into a list of potential new buyers. Intriguingly these appear to have included the English folk rock band Mumford and Sons.

NASCAR’s nuclear option - eliminating the teams

The nuclear scenario though, involved eliminating all charters and therefore teams, and taking the sport entirely ‘in-house’. This would have potentially happened had teams refused to sign charter agreements for 2025 and beyond.

It would have seen NASCAR actually building and owning all the cars (though various manufacturers would still be involved).

The plan, which would have taken 18 months per the documents, would have seen a 1050-strong workforce operating out of a 250,000 square-foot shop.

The document also included planned costings for the in-house option, which would have seen a total of $217million spent on staff alone for a 36-team series - including $72million for drivers ($2million per team). The total cost of a 36-team series would have been $607million.

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