The first four races of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season all featured at least one non-chartered (open) car, continuing a streak that was sitting at 12 races, an all-time Next Gen era high, to conclude the 2024 campaign.
But that streak has been brought to an end ahead of this coming Sunday afternoon's Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, as only the 36 chartered cars are on the entry list.
Live Fast Motorsports, which fielded the No. 78 Chevrolet for Katherine Legge's Cup Series debut this past Sunday afternoon at Phoenix Raceway, will not compete in Sunday's 267-lap race around the four-turn, 1.5-mile (2.414-kilometer) Las Vegas, Nevada, and no other open teams are fielding entries. Additionally, no chartered teams are adding any open cars.
So in addition to ending the 16-race streak of races with at least one open entry, a streak which shattered the previous Next Gen record of five, the Pennzoil 400 is set to produce an occurrence that has never before been true in the history of the Cup Series.
Every single driver on the entry list is a full-time driver.
There have been several races featuring only the 36 chartered cars in the charter era, with 53 alone having been contested since the Next Gen era began in 2022.
But since the charter system was introduced nine years ago, there has always been at least one chartered entry that was shared by multiple drivers throughout the year. So every race featured at least one part-time driver.
And before the charter system, that was also the case, dating all the way back to the inaugural season: the 1949 NASCAR Strictly Stock season. There has always been at least one shared entry, part-time entry, or both in each race.
Absolutely crazy but true: Sunday's #Pennzoil400 at @LVMotorSpeedway is set to be the first race in #NASCAR Cup Series history with ONLY full-time drivers competing.
— Beyond the Flag (@Beyond_The_Flag) March 12, 2025
All 36 charter cars are driven by full-timers for the first time, and there are no open cars on the entry list.
Of course, a team could still opt for a driver change later this year, but all 36 chartered entries entered the year with confirmed full-time drivers, and all of those drivers have indeed run all four races thus far. They're all set to make it five on Sunday.
So without any open cars competing at Las Vegas, the Pennzoil 400 is set to consist exclusively of championship-eligible drivers for the first time. That is something that had also never happened in the playoff era, which dates all the way back to 2004.
NASCAR's charter system, in and of itself, has been the subject of plenty of debate as of late, given the ongoing lawsuit involving 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports, the two teams that refused to sign the new agreement but were still allowed by a judge to compete as three-car chartered teams this year.
At this point, the lawsuit seems to be going in circles, but the case is probably still several months away from any sort of a real resolution, especially amid added threats from NASCAR toward the teams that actually did sign the agreement.
The new charter agreement is a seven-year deal, which aligns with the new $7.7 billion media rights deal featuring existing partners Fox and NBC, plus newcomers Amazon Prime and TNT Sports, and it has a seven-year option that could extend it through 2038.
Additionally, it pays the teams 49% of the revenue from the new broadcast deal, up from between 38% and 40% under the old deal.
Tune in to Fox Sports 1 this Sunday, March 16 at 3:30 p.m. ET for the live broadcast of the Pennzoil 400 from Las Vegas Motor Speedway. If you have not yet had the opportunity to start a free trial of FuboTV, do so now and don't miss any of the action!