NASCAR: The last missing piece is finally in place

The homes for all 36 charters have officially been confirmed for the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season, with Spire Motorsports having two.

At long last, the 36th and final NASCAR Cup Series charter officially has a home for the 2022 season, and it’s exactly where everybody was anticipating.

That charter, formerly owned by Rick Ware Racing, is set to be used to run the #77 Chevrolet at Spire Motorsports, officially making them a two-car team again in 2022.

Spire Motorsports entered the 2021 season with three charters, and they used two of them to run their two entries: the #7 Chevrolet for Corey LaJoie and the #77 Chevrolet for multiple drivers.

The other one was leased out to Trackhouse Racing Team, and they used it to run their #99 Chevrolet for Daniel Suarez in their first season of competition.

But the team sold two of their three charters to Kaulig Racing, leaving them with just one for the 2022 season.

In the meantime, Trackhouse Racing Team secured two of their own by acquiring Chip Ganassi Racing.

With plans to continue running two entries full-time throughout the upcoming season, Spire Motorsports were reportedly in advanced talks with StarCom Racing to secure the charter that the team had used to run the #00 Chevrolet for Quin Houff before shutting down after the 2021 season.

But that deal fell through, and that charter was acquired by 23XI Racing. 23XI Racing had been eyeing a second charter for their new entry, the #45 Toyota for Kurt Busch, after their own talks for one with Front Row Motorsports also fell through.

After all of this chaos, Rick Ware Racing was always seen as the most likely option for Spire Motorsports to obtain a second charter.

Rick Ware Racing ran four cars full-time in the 2021 season, including one that was one using a Richard Petty Motorsports charter, but they indicated early on that they only planned to run two in 2022 and that they were open to parting ways with one of their own charters.

Indeed, that is the plan. The Richard Petty Motorsports charter is now being used as a second charter for the team after they merged with GMS Racing to form Petty GMS Motorsports, and the third Rick Ware Racing charter now belongs to Spire Motorsports.

Meanwhile, Rick Ware Racing have not confirmed any drivers for their #15 Ford or their #51 Ford, aside from David Ragan for the Daytona 500 and other undetermined races. They are the only team without any official full-time or part-time driver confirmations for the 2022 season.

As for Spire Motorsports, they have confirmed that former Rick Ware Racing driver Josh Bilicki is set to drive the #77 Chevrolet for “the majority” of the 2022 season, starting with the Wise Power 400 at Auto Club Speedway on Sunday, February 27, the season’s second race. LaJoie is set to continue driving the #7 Chevrolet full-time.

They have not yet named a driver of the #77 Chevrolet for the season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on Sunday, February 20.