Daytona 500 Qualifying (and questions)

[jimclark]

What constitutes "Charter" teams? and how many are there?

Reference "Note: All Charter teams are guaranteed spots in the Daytona 500." from https://www.nascar.com/news-media/20...ocedure-faq/#/
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(edit: I've Googled but all I've found is what the benefits of being a "charter" team are; not what it takes to become a charter team.....)

[skycafe]

I found this : https://www.foxsports.com/nascar/sto...int-cup-020816

[jimclark]

Thanks. That's all the info I've been able to find, also. No specifics.

I like that it's mentioned "if a race team loses its major sponsors," "Having a charter the team owner can sell would ease the financial burden substantially."
They fail to remind, however, that the charter had to be purchased in the first place, increasing the amount needed initially........

[courageous]

From a business perspecitve for NASCAR, I can see the logic
The only teams who are there, you know can afford it
And if they go under, they've got a golden ticket that somebody else who can afford it will take it up

Kills the park and rides & ensures a consistent grid number at the same time

[skycafe]

Originally Posted by courageous

Kills the park and rides & ensures a consistent grid number at the same time

I can see that, and that is probably good, but how does a new team gain entrance? Waiting for someone else's failure?

[courageous]

Again, from NASCAR's POV - not their problem
you don't have girls outside the bar offering free shots when the dance floor is already full

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by jimclark

Thanks. That's all the info I've been able to find, also. No specifics.

I like that it's mentioned "if a race team loses its major sponsors," "Having a charter the team owner can sell would ease the financial burden substantially."
They fail to remind, however, that the charter had to be purchased in the first place, increasing the amount needed initially........

Originally Posted by skycafe

I can see that, and that is probably good, but how does a new team gain entrance? Waiting for someone else's failure?

Exactly that skycafe, it brings NASCAR in line with the other US sports. For better or worse. But that was exactly their goal, make owning a Cup team similar to owning an NFL, NBA, MLB team, in a few respects not entirely. There's only so many teams and someone has to sell, or the league expand to add a team. The owners, mostly the lower end teams from the comments over the last 4 seasons, wanted something with a cash value for their efforts. Andretti wants to do the same in Indy car.

There is value to selling the race start to others, a few cars are entered by one team on another's charter for the 500. If a team knows they aren't in it for the full season they can make some money buy selling their guaranteed slot in the bigger races. In theory, most races don't hit max capacity outside of Daytona so not really valid in my eyes. Plus when the owner wants to move on there is something beside the race team he can sell on. Again, in theory, as the charters age the value seems like it will drop not grow. The teams were given charters based on their previous Cup involvement at serious discounts compared to what NASCAR thinks they would be worth. Try charging someone for something they already had, you'll get yelling for sure. There was rumored to be some cash involved but no where near the million dollar figure bandied about for the sale of each Michael Waltrip Racing charter (2) to Gibbs and Stewart Haas racing. You are required to enter and field a car for the full race to maintain your charter, start and parks can result in your charter being revoked. There are only 14 charter team, most have more than 1, and a few are leased out to another team. I think there is some value attached to the previous season finish, it looks like a few teams swapped out one lease for another this season.

Side note, Wood Brothers had to buy a charter? Really NASCAR, gtfo with that bull