NASCAR: 5 significant changes that need to be made
By Randy Smith
Changes NASCAR should make: No. 3 – Eliminating the charter system
NASCAR made the decision in 2016 that Cup Series teams needed to purchase a charter if they wanted a guaranteed entry into every race of a season. Instead of qualifying their way in every weekend, the 36 charter teams can spend more time preparing their car knowing they’ll be in the show no matter what.
While it seems like a good idea on paper, this system has allowed backmarker teams to field cars that run outside of the top 30, all while non-chartered cars often run better.
A specific example was last season, when Gaunt Brothers Racing’s non-chartered #96 Toyota would often outperform all of Rick Ware Racing’s four chartered entries. Even though the #96 Toyota would finish better, the four chartered entries of Rick Ware Racing would receive more purse money simply based on the fact that they bought in at the beginning of the season.
The charter system can be argued as investing in NASCAR, but with a price tag of over $10 million, it has even prevented Xfinity Series powerhouse JR Motorsports from entering the Cup Series.
Changing this back to pre-2016, while also expanding the field from 36 to 40 entries, would not only give back to the teams that are in need of purse money, but it would create more of an incentive for competition rather than utilizing a “pay-to-play” system.
There could be a financial drawback for the sanctioning body, but investing in teams again could pay off sooner rather than later. Team owners such as 23XI Racing co-owner Denny Hamlin have experienced troubles when obtaining charters, and he echoed his concerns by stating that the “whole (expletive) sport is not financially good for us.”