NASCAR: Possible charter landing spot ruled out for 2025?

There are still many questions surrounding the NASCAR Cup Series charters that are not yet accounted for as the 2025 season slowly but steadily creeps closer.

Two-car teams 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports opted not to sign the new NASCAR charter agreement, prompting NASCAR to admit that they are prepared to move forward with just 32 charters in 2025 instead of the usual 36.

But amid ongoing litigation stemming from the decision these two teams made to file an antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR, another problem emerged: NASCAR failed to recognize the fact that these two teams had both agreed to acquire a charter from Stewart-Haas Racing amid their expansions from two to three cars.

Stewart-Haas Racing shut down after the 2024 season. Team co-owner Gene Haas retained one of the four charters, and another one was acquired by Trackhouse Racing Team amid their own expansion from two to three cars.

With the two charters that were slated to go to 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports still officially unaccounted for, there are just 30 confirmed charter entries for the 2025 season, and there are questions as to where those other two missing charters might end up – if anywhere, as NASCAR technically cannot force a team to run an extra car.

Richard Childress Racing set with two full-time entries

There had been talks over the summer about Richard Childress Racing potentially moving back to three full-time entries for the first time since 2017.

They have fielded a third entry, the No. 33 Chevrolet, on select occasions in each of the last three seasons. After running the car in just one race in both 2022 and 2023, they ran it in six races during the 2024 campaign.

Austin Hill drove the car in 2022 while Brodie Kostecki drove it in 2023. In 2024, Hill made four starts, while Will Brown and Ty Dillon each made one.

However, their announcement from earlier this week indicates that they are set to continue with two full-time entries, the No. 3 Chevrolet for Austin Dillon and the No. 8 Chevrolet for Kyle Busch.

The team confirmed that they plan to run a third car in multiple races for a number of different drivers, but not for all 36 races on the 2025 schedule. Andy Street is set to serve as the crew chief.

With this third entry being a part-time entry, a charter would do it no good, and it doesn't exactly appear that any other teams are pursuing an additional charter or charters at this stage in the offseason.

Keep in mind that, aside from four-car teams Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing that are now effectively "grandfathered", teams are no longer allowed to operate more than three charters.

23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports do still plan to run three cars each on a full-time basis in 2025. Riley Herbst is set to join Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick at the former, and it is believed that Zane Smith will join Todd Gilliland and newcomer Noah Gragson at the latter.

The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season is scheduled to get underway on Sunday, February 16 with the 67th annual Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway. Fox is set to provide live coverage starting at 2:30 p.m. ET.