Charter Concerns Are A Fan Problem, Not A NASCAR Problem

Concern: Rob Kauffman received two charters when his team (Michael Waltrip Racing) closed down.

Did you know that last year Rob Kauffman bought into Chip Ganassi Racing? If they wanted, CGR could field four cars in 2016…two with Ganassi’s charters and two with Kauffman’s charters. However, Kauffman does not have sponsorship for the cars he could theoretically field with his two charters, and he has willing buyers for the two charters in Joe Gibbs Racing and Stewart-Haas Racing, who did not receive charters for their 19 and 41 teams, respectively, because the 2013 owners standings were used to allocate the charters. People seem to be upset about all of this, particularly because Kauffman’s old team, the once-promising MWR, basically shut down through their own poor decision-making and performance.

But…

This kind of situation is the entire reason for the creation of the charter system.

In the “good old days”, Michael Waltrip Racing would’ve gone the way of Red Bull, or Ricky Rudd’s old team, or Darrell Waltrip’s old team, or Junior Johnson’s old team. That is, they would’ve gone away with the owner receiving pennies on the dollar in value for the assets of the team.

Instead, Kaufmann gets tangible, actual value for the spot his team is unable to use. That is a good thing. I would imagine that in the future a small team like Tommy Baldwin Racing is going to gamble that they can get more value by selling their charter to – say – an expanding Furniture Row Racing, instead of keeping it for themselves. (There has already been a one-year “lease” of a charter from Premium Motorsports to HScott Racing, but nobody is really upset about that because it is the 46 and 98 cars involved.) And boy, will people get upset. And nothing negative will come from it.

Next: Poor Ryan Blaney?