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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — 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 header 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 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.

“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, who 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 this 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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Volpe toss hits Judge as sloppy Yanks fall again

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Volpe toss hits Judge as sloppy Yanks fall again

NEW YORK — A blunder that typifies the current state of the New York Yankees, who find themselves in the midst of their second six-game losing streak in three weeks, happened in front of 41,401 fans at Citi Field on Saturday, and almost nobody noticed.

The Yankees were jogging off the field after securing the third out of the fourth inning of their 12-6 loss to the Mets when shortstop Anthony Volpe, as is standard for teams across baseball at the end of innings, threw the ball to right fielder Aaron Judge as he crossed into the infield from right field.

Only Judge wasn’t looking, and the ball nailed him in the head, knocking his sunglasses off and leaving a small cut near his right eye. The wound required a bandage to stop the bleeding, but Judge stayed in the game.

“Confusion,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “I didn’t know what happened initially. [It just] felt like something happened. Of course I was a little concerned.”

Avoiding an injury to the best player in baseball was on the Yankees’ very short list of positives in another sloppy, draining defeat to their crosstown rivals. With the loss, the Yankees, who held a three-game lead over the Toronto Blue Jays in the American League East standings entering June 30, find themselves tied with the Tampa Bay Rays for second place three games behind the Blue Jays heading into Sunday’s Subway Series finale.

The nosedive has been fueled by messy defense and a depleted pitching staff that has encountered a wall.

“It’s been a terrible week,” said Boone, who before the game announced starter Clarke Schmidt will likely undergo season-ending Tommy John surgery.

For the second straight day, the Mets capitalized on mistakes and cracked timely home runs. After slugging three homers in Friday’s series opener, the Mets hit three more Saturday — a grand slam in the first inning from Brandon Nimmo to take a 4-0 lead and two home runs from Pete Alonso to widen the gap.

Nimmo’s blast — his second grand slam in four days — came after Yankees left fielder Jasson Dominguez misplayed a ball hit by the Mets’ leadoff hitter in the first inning. On Friday, he misread Nimmo’s line drive and watched it sail over his head for a double. On Saturday, he was slow to react to Starling Marte’s flyball in the left-center field gap and braked without catching or stopping it, allowing Marte to advance to second for a double. Yankees starter Carlos Rodon then walked two batters to load the bases for Nimmo, who yanked a mistake, a 1-2 slider over the wall.

“That slider probably needs to be down,” said Rodon, who allowed seven runs (six earned) over five innings. “A lot of misses today and they punished them.”

Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s throwing woes at third base — a position the Yankees have asked him to play to accommodate DJ LeMahieu at second base — continued in the second inning when he fielded Tyrone Taylor’s groundball and sailed a toss over first baseman Cody Bellinger’s head. Taylor was given second base and scored moments later on Marte’s RBI single.

The Yankees were charged with their second error in the Mets’ four-run seventh inning when center fielder Trent Grisham charged Francisco Lindor’s single up the middle and had it bounce off the heel of his glove.

The mistake allowed a run to score from second base without a throw, extending the Mets lead back to three runs after the Yankees had chipped their deficit, and allowed a heads-up Lindor to advance to second base. Lindor later scored on Alonso’s second home run, a three-run blast off left-hander Jayvien Sandridge in the pitcher’s major league debut.

“Just got to play better,” Judge said. “That’s what it comes down to. It’s fundamentals. Making a routine play, routine. It’s just the little things. That’s what it kind of comes down to. But every good team goes through a couple bumps in the road.”

This six-game losing skid has looked very different from the Yankees’ first. That rough patch, consisting of losses to the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Angels, was propelled by offensive troubles. The Yankees scored six runs in the six games and gave up just 16. This time, run prevention is the issue; the Yankees have scored 34 runs and surrendered 54 in four games against the Blue Jays in Toronto and two in Queens.

“The offense is starting to swing the bat, put some runs on the board,” Boone said. “The pitching, which has kind of carried us a lot this season, has really, really struggled this week. We haven’t caught the ball as well as I think we should.

“So, look, when you live it and you’re going through it, it sucks, it hurts. But you got to be able to handle it. You got to be able to deal with it. You got to be able to weather it and come out of this and grow.”

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Former White Sox pitcher, world champ Jenks dies

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Former White Sox pitcher, world champ Jenks dies

Bobby Jenks, a two-time All-Star pitcher for the Chicago White Sox who was on the roster when the franchise won the 2005 World Series, died Friday in Sintra, Portugal, the team announced.

Jenks, 44, who had been diagnosed with adenocarcinoma, a form of stomach cancer, this year, spent six seasons with the White Sox from 2005 to 2010 and also played for the Boston Red Sox in 2011. The reliever finished his major league career with a 16-20 record, 3.53 ERA and 173 saves.

“We have lost an iconic member of the White Sox family today,” White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf said in a statement. “None of us will ever forget that ninth inning of Game 4 in Houston, all that Bobby did for the 2005 World Series champions and for the entire Sox organization during his time in Chicago. He and his family knew cancer would be his toughest battle, and he will be missed as a husband, father, friend and teammate. He will forever hold a special place in all our hearts.”

After Jenks moved to Portugal last year, he was diagnosed with a deep vein thrombosis in his right calf. That eventually spread into blood clots in his lungs, prompting further testing. He was later diagnosed with adenocarcinoma and began undergoing radiation.

In February, as Jenks was being treated for the illness, the White Sox posted “We stand with you, Bobby” on Instagram, adding in the post that the club was “thinking of Bobby as he is being treated.”

In 2005, as the White Sox ended an 88-year drought en route to the World Series title, Jenks appeared in six postseason games. Chicago went 11-1 in the playoffs, and he earned saves in series-clinching wins in Game 3 of the ALDS at Boston, and Game 4 of the World Series against the Houston Astros.

In 2006, Jenks saved 41 games, and the following year, he posted 40 saves. He also retired 41 consecutive batters in 2007, matching a record for a reliever.

“You play for the love of the game, the joy of it,” Jenks said in his last interview with SoxTV last year. “It’s what I love to do. I [was] playing to be a world champion, and that’s what I wanted to do from the time I picked up a baseball.”

A native of Mission Hills, California, Jenks appeared in 19 games for the Red Sox and was originally drafted by the then-Anaheim Angels in the fifth round of the 2000 draft.

Jenks is survived by his wife, Eleni Tzitzivacos, their two children, Zeno and Kate, and his four children from a prior marriage, Cuma, Nolan, Rylan and Jackson.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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In search of infield options, Yanks add Candelario

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In search of infield options, Yanks add Candelario

NEW YORK — The New York Yankees, digging for options to bolster their infield, have signed third baseman Jeimer Candelario to a minor league contract and assigned him to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, the affiliate announced Saturday.

Candelario, 31, was released by the Cincinnati Reds on June 23, halfway through a three-year, $45 million contract he signed before the start of last season. The decision was made after Candelario posted a .707 OPS in 2024 and batted .113 with a .410 OPS in 22 games for the Reds before going on the injured list in April with a back injury.

The performance was poor enough for Cincinnati to cut him in a move that Reds president of baseball operations Nick Krall described as a sunk cost.

For the Yankees, signing Candelario is a low-cost flier on a player who recorded an .807 OPS just two seasons ago as they seek to find a third baseman to move Jazz Chisholm Jr. to second base, his natural position.

Candelario is the second veteran infielder the Yankees have signed to a minor league contract in the past three days; they agreed to terms with Nicky Lopez on Thursday.

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