FAST CHANGES
Team owners get financial stability
NASCAR overhauls its business model by awarding charters to owners of 26 teams.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — NASCAR announced a dramatic overhaul to its business model Tuesday, shifting to a franchise-like system that is intended to provide actual value and financial stability to team owners after decades of heavy reliance on sponsors.
The change gets away from the independent contractor model that had been used since NASCAR’s 1948 inception. A car owner was responsible for all the financial obligations to race each week, depending on sponsorship to help foot the bills. When a sponsor pulled its funding, a car owner could go broke and be left with nothing but racing equipment.
Michael Waltrip Racing had nothing but old cars, used equipment and a building to sell when it closed its doors in November. Now MWR has two of the 36 coveted “charters” and the ability to sell them to the highest bidder. A charter guarantees revenue and a position in what will now be a 40-car Sprint Cup field, down from 43.
MWR co-owner Rob Kauffman, the architect of the Race Team Alliance group that brokered the deal with NASCAR, indicated his two charters will be sold before the Feb. 21 season-opening Daytona 500. One is expected to go to Joe Gibbs Racing for Carl Edwards’ car, the other to Stewart-Haas Rac- ing for Kurt Busch.
Every organization is allowed a maximum of four charters. But in order to get one of the 36, a car had to attempt every race since 2013. Busch and Edwards both drive for recently added teams.
Kauffman estimated the current worth of a charter is “single digit millions.”
The charters are good for nine years and there is a performance clause tied to them. Selling or transferring a charter is only allowed once in a five-year period.
Potential new team owners must be vetted by NASCAR before a sale for a new charter can be completed, and NASCAR will collect an administrative fee in the process. Each team owner can set their own sales price for a charter.
The charters went to Richard Petty Motorsports (2); Richard Childress Racing (3); Team Penske (2); Hendrick Motorsports (4); Roush Fenway Racing (3); Chip Ganassi Racing (2); Joe Gibbs Racing (3); Michael Waltrip Racing (2); Stewart-Haas Racing (3); Furniture Row Racing (1); Front Row Motorsports (2); JTG Daugherty Racing (1); Tommy Baldwin Racing (1); Germain Racing (1); Go Fas Racing (1); BK Racing (2); Premium Motorsports (1); Circle Sport Racing (1); and HScott Motorsports (1).
Among the teams that did not receive a charter was The Wood Brothers, which will field a full-time entry this year for Ryan Blaney. He will now have to qualify every week for one of the four open slots in the field.