NASCAR: 3 teams that still need charters for 2022

Teams needing charters for 2022: No. 3 – Rick Ware Racing

I want to clarify one thing before getting started here, almost as if there’s an asterisk here: Rick Ware Racing are by no means in need of obtaining more charters for the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season.

I’ve included them here simply because, of the 32 charters that have been confirmed by teams for next year, zero belong to Rick Ware’s team (full breakdown here).

However, there is still some uncertainty regarding where each of their four charters, including the one that is technically owned by Richard Petty Motorsports (used to field the #51 Petty Ware Racing entry), will end up for next year.

So for that reason, I’m lumping them in with the likes of GMS Racing and Spire Motorsports, because at the end of the day, we still aren’t exactly sure what the charter situation will look like when the 2022 season rolls around.

Three Fridays ago, Rick Ware Racing posted a 100-day countdown to the Daytona 500, and that post subtly included the logos for the #15 team and the #51 team).

So it is assumed that the team will, in fact, be downsizing from four entries to two for the 2022 season, eliminating the #52 team and the #53 team, and team owner Rick Ware had stated before that he was open to selling or leasing out at least one charter for next year.

Here’s where the key question comes in: would the charter owned by Richard Petty Motorsports still be used to operate the #51 team, effectively meaning that two Rick Ware Racing charters would be on the move?

Or would Ware’s team simply shift one of their own charters from the #52 team or the #53 team to the #51 team, thus resulting in Rick Ware Racing only technically losing one charter (presumably to GMS Racing or Spire Motorsports) and Richard Petty Motorsports moving their second charter (they run just one car, the #43 Chevrolet) to the other?