Legacy Motor Club pushes forward with suit over charter deal gone wrong

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (CN) — Legacy Motor Club has not backed down on its lawsuit against T.J. Puchyr, calling the consultant’s attempt to purchase Rick Ware Racing and its racing charters “immoral, unethical, oppressive [and] unscrupulous.”

Puchyr, one of the founders of Spire Motorsports, helped to broker a deal between Legacy and Rick Ware Racing in 2025. Rick Ware Racing eventually sold a charter — a franchise-like agreement granting NASCAR Cup Series teams guaranteed race entry and a cut of broadcasting profits — to Legacy, but miscommunications between the parties led to a nasty contract dispute in Charlotte court.

Legacy insisted that the sale was for the 2026 season, as it planned to add a third full-time Cup Series car. Rick Ware Racing argued that the deal was for 2027, and that team owner Rick Ware accidentally signed a contract that read 2026. The case got complicated when it was reported that Rick Ware Racing planned to sell its company and two charters to Puchyr in the middle of litigation, and the court stepped in and froze the sale until trial.

Rick Ware Racing and Legacy Motor Club finally came to a confidential settlement and dismissed their legal cases against each other in November 2025, but Legacy isn’t done with Puchyr. The team initially filed suit against him in July 2025, terminating its contracting agreement with him and his consulting company, Rucus Racing, on the same day.

Legacy filed a sealed amended complaint last week, and a redacted copy of its amended pleading Friday afternoon.

Puchyr’s attempt to secure the charter Legacy believed it had purchased “caused substantial harm,” Legacy argued. The sale, which the Charlotte court worried was imminent, has had no public updates in months.

Puchyr told The Associated Press in June 2025 that he planned to buy a third charter, make the company a three-car Cup Series team and keep owner Rick Ware on as a partner. Rick Ware Racing is currently only racing one car in the 2026 season, and its website still lists Ware as the team owner. A representative for Rick Ware Racing did not reply to an inquiry on the status of the sale.

Puchyr’s “intended” deal was valued at $150 million, Legacy said in their filing, a price “without precedent.”

Following the dismissal of the teams’ claims in November, the judge’s order blocking the sale is no longer in effect and Puchyr and Rick Ware Racing are free to close the deal.

“Mr. Puchyr spent weeks preparing, negotiating and presumably securing financing for his prospective purchase of Rick Ware Racing and its charters — securing millions of dollars from as-yet unknown entities and/or individuals in the process,” Legacy said, adding that the purchase was not an “overnight development.”

Puchyr and Rucus Racing acted with malice, Legacy claimed, violating the consulting agreement they held with Legacy and preventing it from entering into agreements with sponsors by complicating Legacy’s plan to run a third car in 2026.

Puchyr spent weeks raising millions in financing despite knowing that Legacy was owed a charter, the team said, and concealed his plan to buy Rick Ware Racing for weeks. He also exploited his knowledge of the charter agreement to present a transaction that “best fit his own and RWR’s interests while violating Legacy’s rights.”

Puchyr used unfair methods of competition with the intention to harm Legacy, the team said, including by leveraging its lawsuit against Rick Ware Racing to try to enter the Cup Series by purchasing the opposing team.

“Mr. Puchyr’s and Rucus’s intention to purchase RWR and its charters under these circumstances offends public policy and is immoral, unethical, oppressive, unscrupulous and substantially injurious to Legacy,” the team said, requesting actual, punitive and treble damages.

Legacy also accused Puchyr of misusing Legacy’s confidential business information for personal gain and orchestrating the deal with Rick Ware Racing despite being present in court when the racing team vowed not to encumber the disputed charter.

“Rather than advocate for Legacy and its reputation, Mr. Puchyr publicly maligned his client and exploited his position of trust and his knowledge of the RWR Agreement to strike a backroom deal with the goal of depriving Legacy of the bargain that he helped put together,” the team said.

Counsel for Puchyr and Rucus Racing did not reply to a request for comment or provide clarification on the status of the deal to purchase Rick Ware Racing.

Following an antitrust lawsuit first reported by Courthouse News, NASCAR reached a settlement in December making racing charters permanent. Legacy Motor Club and Rick Ware Racing were not parties to the suit, but all teams who held a racing charter were given an amendment to their contracts.

Follow @SKHaulenbeek Follow @shaulenbeek.bsky.social