NASCAR: ‘A Field is 36 Cars, Not 40’
Since the announcement of NASCAR’s new charter system there have been many questions about how NASCAR will treat non-chartered teams. Chief Operating Officer Brent Dewar shed some light on the issue, and it explains why the Wood Brothers left the Race Team Alliance.
The slow trickle of information about the new NASCAR charter system is clearing up one very important issue for fans and teams. If you are not chartered, everything is against you. First was the announcement that the fields were going to be reduced from 43 to 40 teams with 36 of the spots held by chartered teams. At the time of the charter announcement only 38 teams had declared as “full-time” teams so that the three lost spots did not represent a significant reduction.
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Then came the information that the purses for the teams that did not get awarded a charter would be less than chartered teams. Social media has been abuzz since the announcement that the Wood Brothers did not receive a charter. To their credit they have handled it with the class that team has always shown. There have been persistent questions from the media for more details on the purses and what the non-charter teams should expect. That led NASCAR’s Chief Operating Officer Brent Dewar to answer some questions from NBC Sports that really brought into focus the struggle those teams fighting for the final four spots are going to face.
For NASCAR since 1998 a full field consisted of 43 cars. Prior to that it was 42 with a 43rd available for a past champion. Upon announcing the charter system NASCAR said there would now be 40 spots available at Sprint Cup events. Brent Dewar has now stated that for NASCAR “A field for us is 36 (cars) not 40”. Yes you read that right 36, the charter teams represent the full field in NASCAR’s eyes. They even came up with a new term for the non chartered teams, “open teams”.
Over the past decade there has been debate over whether the “start and park” teams were hurting the sport. These teams filled out the 43 car field, ran a few laps and collected the purse for their finishing place. Teams like Tommy Baldwin Racing started this way and are now chartered full-time teams. Others have come and gone taking places from teams that were trying to run a full race, while they trailed and were long off property before the checkered flag waved.
Questions began to swirl after NASCAR announced that they were no longer going to post what the total race purse was along with what the race winnings were for each driver. Dewar clarified a bit what open teams could expect in the way of purses in comparison to charter teams. He said that an open team could expect a guarantee purse about 30% of what a chartered team would. Now that could increase with higher finishing places, but right there many teams cannot afford to go based on a guaranteed purse that is so much lower than years past.
NASCAR hopes that this will end the start and park practice, but has not been able to finalize its “performance expectations” for its chartered teams to prevent them from employing this. Only time will tell if it works, but for some smaller teams it was the opening they needed to get their programs started. With NASCAR charters lasting nine years, it would seem the ability to build a team is being slowly erased. Large purse strings and a team willing to sell their carter are the only way to now secure your place in Sprint Cup.
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You have to give Nate Ryan credit for getting some answers to questions that NASCAR fans have been asking. Unfortunately those answers are proving fans worst fears of the charter system to be true. The withdrawal of the Wood Brothers from the Race Team Alliance does also show that the information was not just being held from the public, but some of its members as well.