T.J. Puchyr agrees to buy Rick Ware
Racing with plans to build a 3-car NASCAR team
[June 27, 2025]
By JENNA FRYER
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — One of the founders of Spire Motorsports has
entered an agreement to purchase the NASCAR team owned by Rick Ware
and is jumping back into the stock car series because he believes
the current charters are grossly undervalued.
T.J. Puchyr, who in 2018 alongside Jeff Dickerson launched the Spire
team to take over the charter that Furniture Row Racing could not
unload, told The Associated Press on Thursday he and Rick Ware
Racing have a deal for him to take over Ware's organization next
season.
When Puchyr and Dickerson bought the Furniture Row charter, the
market for NASCAR's version of franchise models was essentially
dead. Their agency had been hired by Furniture Row owner Barney
Visser to sell the charter and when they couldn't find a buyer, the
two decided to purchase it themselves for $6 million and launch
their own team.
That decision jump-started the charter market and the most recent
charters sold — when Stewart-Haas Racing went out of business at the
end of last season — went for approximately $30 million. Puchyr and
Dickerson are largely credited with pumping life and value into an
otherwise dormant charter system.
Puchyr last year sold his shares of Spire to Dan Towriss, the CEO of
TWG Motorsports and head of the new Cadillac F1 team. Puchyr has
spent 2025 consulting with various teams, including RWR and Legacy
Motor Club. He's watched the market closely and has attended several
of the recent court hearings involving NASCAR against 23XI Racing
and Front Row Motorsports, who have filed an antitrust lawsuit over
the charter agreement those two teams refused to sign last
September.
There are only 36 Cup Series charters, which guarantee a team entry
into every NASCAR race and a steady revenue stream. Puchyr believes
they are greatly undervalued and in one of his final deals with
Spire, he helped acquire a charter from Live Fast Motorsports for
$40 million.
“I am bullish on wanting to build a three-car team. I believe in the
France family and the direction of the sport and I want the rest of
the shareholders and industry to know that I believe the charters
are worth $75 million or more,” he told AP.
What about Ware’s second charter?
In his deal with Ware, Puchyr will keep Ware on board as a partner,
also keep Ware’s son, Cody, in the No. 51 Ford, and retain all of
the current RWR employees. Ware’s current second charter is leased
to RFK Racing, but Legacy Motor Club made a legal claim that it had
entered an agreement to buy that charter next season.
A judge did not agree with Legacy, and said Ware has a lease deal
with RFK for 2026 on a second charter. Puchyr believes none of the
parties can perform to the Legacy-RWR contract — which he said was
written by Legacy — and there is no charter available from Ware for
Legacy for either lease or purchase in 2026. Ware has filed a
countersuit against Legacy.
Legacy, a two-car Cup team, is currently owned by seven-time NASCAR
champion and Hall of Famer Jimmie Johnson. He has recently taken on
partnership from private equity firm Knighthead Capital Management,
which alongside Johnson is exploring expansion into several other
motorsports series.
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A Rick Ware Racing patch is displayed on the fire suit of
driver Cody Ware prior to the NASCAR Cup Series 300 auto race at New
Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, N.H., Sunday, Sept. 24, 2017.
(AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)
“If anybody deserves a pass it is Jimmie and if he
wants to sit down and talk about it like men, I’d entertain the
conversation,” said Puchyr, who was offended that Legacy sued Ware.
“I don’t think Jimmie has all the facts, doesn’t understand the deal
we had, and they tried to humiliate Rick publicly. We don’t do
business that way.”
Now, Puchyr and Ware are confident the second charter currently
leased to RFK will be returned to their team in 2027, allowing
Puchyr to expand the organization. He wants to buy a third charter
that makes the organization a three-car Cup team by 2027.
Can Puchyr build a winning team?
Ware has done the second-most charter transactions in the industry
only to Spire and at one point held four. Now he’s trying to rebuild
his organization and win races with his son as the driver, something
Puchyr wants to help him achieve.
“I’ve won at everything I’ve done at every level and I think we can
compete with these guys,” Puchyr said. “I think we can build it
brick-by-brick and it’s going to take people, money and time. It’s
not lost on me that (RWR) is the 36th-place car in the garage, we
all see it. But I believe we can make this a competitive
organization, even a winner.
“And I believe we can get these charters valued at their true
worth.”
Ware fields winning organizations in other motorsports series,
including NHRA with Clay Millican. A Ware-owned team won the 2024
American Flat Track championship, the 2022 FIM World Supercross
Championship and the 2019-2020 Asian Le Mans Series prototype title.
Puchyr did not reveal to the AP how much he’s paying for Ware’s
organization, which technically only holds the charter for Cody
Ware’s car this season and runs Corey Lajoie in a second “open” car
in select races. Once it gets its leased charter back from RFK in
2027, the team will have at least two cars with the focus on
purchasing a third.
Purchasing charters is not easy at this time as multiple teams have
interest but lack the monetary funds to buy them at the
ever-increasing rates. Among them is Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt
Jr., who has not been able to get his hands on charters to take his
Xfinity Series team to NASCAR’s top Cup Series level.
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