NASCAR: One team could end up in serious trouble

One charter has finished in the bottom three of the owner standings in each of the last two NASCAR Cup Series seasons, putting it at risk in 2023.

The 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season is officially underway, with two races at Daytona International Speedway and Auto Club Speedway already in the books.

Three charters entered the 2023 season having finished in the bottom three of the owner standings (among the 36 charter teams) in the 2022 season. Those three charters are the ones used to run the No. 15 Rick Ware Racing team, the No. 51 Rick Ware Racing team, and the No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports team.

Unfortunately for one of those teams, the No. 15 team, their charter has finished in the bottom three in back-to-back seasons.

The other two charters which finished in the bottom three in 2021 both finished in the top 33 in 2022. Those two charters were used by the No. 00 Spire Motorsports team and the No. 53 Rick Ware Racing team in 2021, but both ended up at new organizations in 2022. Both had finished outside of the top 33 in 2020 as well.

The charter used to run the No. 00 Chevrolet was acquired by 23XI Racing to run the No. 45 Toyota, and the No. 45 team finished in 10th place in the 2022 owner standings.

The charter used to run the No. 53 Chevrolet/Ford was acquired by Spire Motorsports to run the No. 7 Chevrolet, and the No. 7 team finished in 32nd place in the owner standings.

Spire Motorsports had sold two of their three charters from 2021 to Kaulig Racing, and instead of using the charter from Rick Ware Racing to run the No. 77 team, they used it to run the No. 7 team.

The No. 77 Chevrolet was driven by multiple drivers whereas the No. 7 Chevrolet was driven by Corey LaJoie, so the team felt that using the at-risk charter for LaJoie’s entry made it less likely to finish outside of the top 33. That proved true, though the No. 77 team did still finish in the top 33 — in 33rd place.

Can the No. 15 team avoid finishing in the bottom three for a third consecutive NASCAR Cup Series season this year?

There is no guarantee that NASCAR would actually repossess a team’s charter after three consecutive seasons of finishing in the bottom three in the standings, but nobody wants to be in a spot where that becomes a possibility.

In both 2021 and 2022, the No. 15 team was the top team in the bottom three. In 2021, it finished just seven points out of the top 33, and in 2022, it finished 29 points behind.

However, in 2021, it scored just 210 points, while in 2022, it scored 341, indicating that there was significant progress in terms of the team’s competitiveness.

Whether or not further progress can carry the team into the top 33 in 2023 remains to be seen, but even if not, would NASCAR really repossess a charter from a team after seeing such progress?

Through two races this year, the No. 15 team sits in 16th place in the owner standings with finishes of 10th and 23rd. If they can keep up that pace, there won’t even be an issue, but two races, especially since one was the Daytona 500, is a very small sample size.