NASCAR: The one charter that still doesn’t have a home for 2022
By Asher Fair
Following the Petty GMS Motorsports announcement, there is just one charter left without a confirmed home for the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season.
Richard Petty Motorsports and GMS Racing confirmed earlier in the offseason that Richard Petty Motorsports have sold a majority interest to GMS Racing team owner Maury Gallagher ahead of the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season.
This deal includes Richard Petty Motorsports’ two charters: the one that they have used to run the #43 Chevrolet, and the one that they have allowed Rick Ware Racing to use to run their #51 car.
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The plan had been to run the #43 Chevrolet as a Richard Petty Motorsports entry for Erik Jones in 2022, with Ty Dillon behind the wheel of the #94 Chevrolet for GMS Racing.
However, Richard Petty Motorsports and GMS Racing merged to form Petty GMS Motorsports, and although Jones is still set to pilot the #43 Chevrolet, the number 42 has replaced the number 94 for Dillon’s Chevrolet.
Following this deal, there is just one charter that doesn’t yet have a home for the 2022 season.
Prior to the deal, 32 of the 36 charters had confirmed homes for next year. The four that did not were all operated by Rick Ware Racing in 2021.
Rick Ware Racing, which had made clear that they are open to selling or leasing out at least one of their charters for the 2022 season, indicated that they will be downsizing from four cars to two cars for next year.
After running the #15 team, the #51 team, the #52 team and the #53 team in 2021, they indicated that they plan to run only the #15 team and the #51 team in 2022. The question was whether or not the #51 team would continue to be run using the Richard Petty Motorsports charter.
That question was answered by the formation of Petty GMS Motorsports.
With this charter on the move to the newly branded outfit, Rick Ware Racing will need to use two of their own three charters to run the #15 team and the #51 team in 2022.
This means that 35 of the 36 charters are now confirmed.
So the one non-confirmed charter for next year is the third Rick Ware Racing charter, one that they are likely to send to another team.
Will that other team be Spire Motorsports? Spire Motorsports are looking for a second charter after selling two of their three, including the one that they had leased out to Trackhouse Racing Team, to Kaulig Racing for next year.
They had reportedly been in advanced talks with StarCom Racing, but StarCom Racing ended up selling their charter to 23XI Racing instead.
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Either way, arguably the biggest remaining puzzle piece in silly season fell into place with the sale of a majority interest in Richard Petty Motorsports to GMS Racing, living one big one to go.