If I had a nickel for every active lawsuit in the NASCAR Cup Series, I would have two nickels, which isn’t a lot … well, you know the rest.
On April 1, Legacy Motor Club filed a lawsuit against Rick Ware Racing — and it was no April Fool’s joke. The lawsuit alleges that the two teams came to (and signed) an agreement for Legacy to buy one of RWR’s charters for 2026, but RWR got cold feet and is attempting to back out.
While Legacy has made no comment, RWR has released a statement stating in part that the lawsuit is “a misguided attempt to tarnish our reputation.”
This lawsuit pales in comparison to the legal battle that 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports are fighting against NASCAR itself. However, it is not one you should ignore, either, because the outcome of it could determine several things in the grand scope of the Cup Series.
If the lawsuit goes RWR’s way, then the charter sale will not go into effect until 2027 (as reported by The Athletic, RWR said it was under the impression the sale would be for the 2027 season, not 2026). That gives the team time to figure out which charter it would want to sell and whether or not it wants to sell its other charter at the same time (but more on that in a minute).
It would allow the team to also refocus its efforts toward other efforts in which RWR has a hand. It fields the No. 51 NTT IndyCar Series machine for Jacob Abel (in partnership with Dale Coyne Racing). It ran sports car racing as recently as last year. It fields an NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Top Fuel car for Clay Millican and even has an American Flat Track team with riders Briar Bauman and Chase Saathoff.
By selling off a charter to Legacy, RWR can focus more toward those series, which are much more successful than the NASCAR side of things. Millican just won the most recent NHRA Top Fuel race at the Pomona Dragstrip, while the American Flat Track program also has triumphed recently with both Bauman and Saathoff. RWR’s full-time NASCAR driver Cody Ware has made starts in both IndyCar and the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Series and could easily defect back to one of those series if his charter is the one that gets sold off.
Legacy, on the other hand, would have to continue into at least 2026 with a two-car program and drivers John Hunter Nemechek and Erik Jones. The third car would likely still be part time for Jimmie Johnson. However an attempt to buy a charter for 2026, plus Johnson’s mere two-race schedule (that we know of) in 2025 might signal that the seven-time champion is gearing up for a shift away from the racetrack and into the office.
That leaves a third car in limbo if Legacy has to wait until 2027 to acquire a third charter. It just signed a new reserve and sim driver in Kaz Grala (after Corey Heim, who previously served in that role, signed a full driver-development deal with 23XI), so potentially the team tries to get Grala behind the wheel for a few races in 2026 before gearing up for a full-time run in 2027.
However, things get a lot more murky if Legacy wins the lawsuit. If RWR has to give up a charter, which one does it give up?
This is where more teams come into play besides the two in the lawsuit.
This season, RFK Racing signed Ryan Preece to drive a third full-time entry, the No. 60. The team has not purchased a third charter, and instead is leasing one … from RWR. That’s why Ware is the only full-time driver for RWR and the second car will only be seen part time this season (currently, it has been driven in two points-paying races — though gearing up for a third — with Corey LaJoie behind the wheel).
RWR’s No. 15 charter is the one that is currently being leased to RFK to give Preece a full drive for this season. However, it’s been a rule since charters were introduced that a team cannot lease the same charter in back-to-back seasons, and it can only be leased once in a seven-year period (i.e.: once per charter agreement period).
So RFK could be put in a bind with just two options. The first would be leasing the No. 51 charter from RWR next season, which would let RWR sell the No. 15 charter to Legacy (if Legacy prevails). But if RWR isn’t ready to give up both charters in 2026, RFK could risk running Preece full time in 2026 without a charter (something Preece did a couple of years ago with Hyak Motorsports).
The other option is to outright purchase the No. 15 charter from RWR at the end of the season to prevent Preece from running as an open car. That would mean if Legacy is awarded a charter for 2026 from RWR, RWR will be out of the sport completely in 2027. That would affect sponsors, employees and drivers —- particularly Ware, who would suddenly be out of a ride for 2026 after just getting a full-time car back for this season.
The big question might be how hard Legacy and RWR fight in court. Remember, NASCAR is embroiled in a legal battle with 23XI and FRM over charters, the very thing Legacy wants to acquire from RWR. Earlier this year, it was reported that NASCAR would do away with charters all together if 23XI and FRM prevailed.
So why would Legacy be so adamant about acquiring a charter right now if no one even knows whether or not charters will continue to exist beyond 2025? I understand wanting to maintain the course in case charters stick around, but a charter negotiation for 2027 would be much more reasonable, as by the beginning of the 2026 season, we should have our answer on whether or not charters will exist going forward.
It’s also worth asking why Legacy would want to purchase a third charter at a time when the two cars it has now are behind on speed compared to its Toyota counterparts. Legacy has openly stated it’s building its own data and not poaching data off of 23XI or Joe Gibbs Racing. But because of that, both Nemechek and Jones are lacking the speed of the other Toyotas.
To be fair, 2025 has seen an uptick in Legacy’s performance. The team began with a double top five in the Daytona 500, led by Johnson in third and followed by Nemechek in fifth. Jones arguably should have won his Duel a few days prior as well. Nemechek actually backed his 500 performance up with a 10th-place finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway the next week, and as it stands, he’s currently 17th in points, just two points out of a playoff spot.
However, is the team still trying to bite off more than it can chew by acquiring a third charter? And again, who would be the driver outside of Johnson or Grala? Certainly nobody from the lower series other than Heim is ready for a Cup ride, but he seems pretty set with 23XI now.
As for RWR, it seems as if it will sell a charter no matter what. It’s just a matter of when the charter will be sold. Or will it possibly rethink the negotiations altogether after getting served a lawsuit?
And keep an eye on how RFK might respond to the lawsuit, too. It seems it will have to take swift action to permanently own a charter, no matter how this lawsuit plays out.
All that is to say that yes, the 23XI/FRM vs. NASCAR lawsuit is the more important legal storyline for the sport, as so much more will be dictated once that suit is settled.
But don’t ignore this lawsuit just because it involves two mid- to rear-running teams, because the fallout of this legal battle on its own could have bigger implications than just one team simply acquiring a charter from another.
Who knew that the courtroom would be have more than one event on the NASCAR schedule in 2025?
Anthony Damcott joined Frontstretch in March 2022. Currently, he is an editor and co-authors Fire on Fridays (Fridays); he is also the primary Truck Series reporter/writer and serves as an at-track reporter. He has also assisted with short track content and social media, among other duties he takes/has taken on for the site. In 2025, he became an official member of the National Motorsports Press Association. A proud West Virginia Wesleyan College alum from Akron, Ohio, Anthony is now a grad student. He is a theatre actor and fight coordinator in his free time.
You can keep up with Anthony by following @AnthonyDamcott on X.