Under a newly announced agreement between NASCAR and Sprint Cup Series team owners, fields for races will drop from 43 to 40 cars, with 36 of those starting spots guaranteed to chartered teams.
The historic announcement was made Tuesday at the Charlotte Convention Center in North Carolina, with NASCAR officials and Sprint Cup Series team principles in attendance.
The key to the nine-year agreement is the inception of a charter system that guarantees team owners a guaranteed entry into each NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event. There will be 36 chartered teams, with the number of starters of each race dropping to a 40-car field. The balance of the starting line up will be made up of four non-chartered teams, allowing smaller teams the chance to compete.
“Today represents a landmark change to the business model of team ownership in NASCAR,” France said. “The charter agreements provide nine years of stability for NASCAR and the teams to focus on growth initiatives together with our track partners, auto manufacturers, drivers and sponsors. The charters also are transferable, which will aid in the development of long-term enterprise value for charter members.”
The charters themselves garnered the most attention during the announcement. The agreement contains a performance clause that stipulates teams must continue to compete to keep their charter. Teams cannot earn a charter through on track performance. They have to be purchased from an existing charter owner.
To qualify for a charter, a team had to participate full time in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series over the last three seasons (2013-2015). This means the initial field of chartered teams includes the now defunct Michael Waltrip Racing with two charters. That leaves the No. 19 Toyota of Carl Edwards for Joe Gibbs Racing, the No. 41 of Kurt Busch for Stewart-Haas Motorsports and the No. 21 of Ryan Blaney for the Wood Brothers are without charters.
The charters will be able to be transferred between teams, and can only be sold once in a five year period. They can transfer in the sale of a team, and there is also a short term transfer that can happen once every five years for each single race car.
Another key part of the new system is the establishment of a Team Owner Council, which will have input into decisions with NASCAR. Charter teams will also be open to new revenue opportunities with NASCAR, including a larger hand in digital interests. In doing so, charter teams will have predictable revenue, allowing for some long term financial stability for those teams over the nine years of the agreement.
“The new charter program strengthens each of our businesses individually and the team model as a whole, which is good for NASCAR, our fans, drivers, sponsors and the thousands of people who we employ,” said Rob Kauffman, co-owner of Chip Ganassi Racing. “This will give us more stability and predictability, and it will allow us to take a more progressive, long-term approach to issues.”
With the announcement, some competition questions have arisen with the Daytona 500 now just over a week and a half away. The qualifying format for the Daytona 500 under the new charter system will be announced later this week. Meanwhile the points system is expected to be changed in some way due to the smaller fields. An announcement on that is also expected later this week.
“It’s going to be one of the greatest things that’s ever happened to NASCAR and Cup racing,” said seven-time Sprint Cup Series champion and team owner Richard Petty. “I’ve been here a long time, I’ve seen a lot of stuff go under the bridge more or less. But this is the next generation of what we’re going to have to do to make racing that much bigger.”
“I think everyone gave their pint of blood,” said Kauffman. “Like a lot of transactions I’ve been lucky to participate in over time, at the end of the day a fair deal is where everyone compromised, no one is a hundred percent happy, but everyone says this is a fair balance, I think we can live with it, go forward with it.”
NASCAR Charter teams
Listed by historical inception of race team entity, then numerical
2015 Car # 2016 Car # Organization
43 43 Richard Petty Motorsports
9 44 Richard Petty Motorsports
3 3 Richard Childress Racing
27 27 Richard Childress Racing
31 31 Richard Childress Racing
2 2 Team Penske
22 22 Team Penske
5 5 Hendrick Motorsports
24 24 Hendrick Motorsports
48 48 Hendrick Motorsports
88 88 Hendrick Motorsports
6 6 Roush Fenway Racing
16 16 Roush Fenway Racing
17 17 Roush Fenway Racing
1 1 Chip Ganassi Racing
42 42 Chip Ganassi Racing
11 11 Joe Gibbs Racing
18 18 Joe Gibbs Racing
20 20 Joe Gibbs Racing
15 TBD Michael Waltrip Racing
55 TBD Michael Waltrip Racing
4 4 Stewart-Haas Racing
10 10 Stewart-Haas Racing
14 14 Stewart-Haas Racing
78 78 Furniture Row Racing
35 34 Front Row Motorsports
38 38 Front Row Motorsports
47 47 JTG Daugherty Racing
7 7 Tommy Baldwin Racing
13 13 Germain Racing
32 32 Go Fas Racing
23 23 BK Racing
83 83 BK Racing
62 62 Premium Motorsports
33 95 Circle Sport Racing
51 15 HScott Motorsports
