NASCAR team makes strategic change for 2022

Spire Motorsports are one of several teams to have played a prominent role in the charter market ahead of the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season.

Several of the 36 charters have changed hands ahead of the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season. In fact, just 26 charters from 2021 are set to be used for the same cars in 2022.

One team involved in multiple charter transactions throughout this past silly season was Spire Motorsports, which had three charters in 2021.

They used two of these charters for their own team, running the #7 Chevrolet for Corey LaJoie and the #77 Chevrolet for a number of drivers, primarily Justin Haley.

They leased out the third charter to Trackhouse Racing Team for them to run their #99 Chevrolet for Daniel Suarez in their first season in the Cup Series.

But they sold two charters, including the one which they had leased out, to Kaulig Racing, which plan to run full-time in the Cup Series for the first time in 2022.

Trackhouse Racing Team were able to secure two charters of their own by acquiring Chip Ganassi Racing, giving them the means to expand and become a two-car organization.

This left Spire Motorsports with just one charter for 2022, but they still had aspirations of running a two-car program.

They were initially rumored to be purchasing StarCom Racing’s charter with StarCom Racing shutting down after the 2021 season, but that deal fell through.

Instead, the charter that had been used to run the #00 Chevrolet for Quin Houff ended up going to 23XI Racing, giving them their long sought after second charter in preparation for their expansion to two cars ahead of their second season.

With Rick Ware Racing downsizing from four cars to two, they still had one charter with which to part ways after the Petty Ware Racing charter went back to Richard Petty Motorsports ahead of their merger to GMS Racing to become Petty GMS Motorsports.

So Spire Motorsports ended up securing the charter that Rick Ware Racing had used to run their #53 team, giving them two charters for 2022.

Here’s where things get interesting.

The #53 team finished in the bottom three of the owner standings (among the 36 charter teams) in both 2020 and 2021.

Charter teams are held to a minimum performance standard in the Cup Series, meaning that if a charter team finishes in the bottom three of the owner standings for three consecutive seasons, NASCAR has the right to repossess that team’s charter.

So with 35th place finishes in the last two years, this charter is at risk of repossession with another finish outside of the top 33 in 2022.

Spire Motorsports had always planned to run the #7 Chevrolet again for LaJoie in 2022, so one would think that they would use their recently acquired second charter for the #77 Chevrolet to replace one of the two they sold to Kaulig Racing.

However, that is not the case.

They are set to use the new charter for the #7 Chevrolet instead, and they are set to use the charter that they had used to run the #7 Chevrolet for the #77 Chevrolet.

The decision was a strategic one to say the least.

With the #7 Chevrolet being driven by a full-time driver in LaJoie, that car is seen as far less likely to finish in the bottom three of the owner standings than the #77 Chevrolet, which is set to be split among several drivers throughout the season.

As a result, Spire Motorsports made the decision to use the at-risk charter on the car less likely to give NASCAR the opportunity for repossession.

The 2022 season is scheduled to get underway this afternoon with the 64th annual Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway. Fox is set to broadcast the race live beginning at 2:30 p.m. ET, so if you have not begun your free trial of FuboTV, now would be a great time to do so!