Will Charter System Keep JRM Out Of Cup?

Will the charter system stop Dale Earnhardt Jr. from bringing JR Motorsports into the NASCAR Cup Series? – Abe L., Sacramento

After years of speculation, the championship-winning NASCAR Xfinity Series team co-owned by two-time Daytona 500 winner and 15-time Cup most popular driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. is ready to make the jump to Cup — or at least “dip [its] toe in the water.” 

Earnhardt fed the rumors earlier this week on the Dale Jr Download, but his sister, JRM co-owner and vice president Kelley Earnhardt Miller, all but confirmed them on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, saying, “we’re thinking about it every day, working on it, it feels like every other day. We do want to go Cup racing.” 

Said Earnhardt Miller, “I don’t think we’ll be Cup racing full time for 2023, that’s for certain. … unless something awesome falls from the sky … I don’t think there’s a lot of charters up for grabs at a reasonable cost right now.”

💭 “I don’t think we’ll be Cup racing full-time for 2023, that’s for certain […] right now, our sights are set beyond that.” 👀

🗣️ On #TradinPaint, @EarnhardtKelley provided an update on the potential of @JRMotorsports expansion into the #NASCAR Cup Series. ⬇ pic.twitter.com/QPMauBNbKk

— SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Ch. 90) (@SiriusXMNASCAR) June 28, 2022

I’m mature enough to admit when I’m wrong. When NASCAR introduced the charter system in 2016, like many fans I mourned the loss of the ostensibly meritocratic top-35 rule. Instead, the 36 teams that owned charters would be locked into every race purely because they’d paid for the privilege. 

After a couple years, the whole thing looked like a mistake. Richard Petty Motorsports and Richard Childress Racing downsized and charters ended up in the hands of non-competitive backmarker teams.

Just a few short years later the charter system has lived up to its promise, stabilizing the business of team ownership and attracting new owners to the sport. The result? The number of competitive full-time Cup teams is growing, and both the industry and the show are healthier for it. 

The downside, at least for Earnhardt and JRM, is that, since a flood of new owners have already entered the sport, fewer and fewer charters are available at an affordable price. The cost to obtain one has likely gone up since last year, after Trackhouse Racing Team, 23XI Racing and Kaulig Racing all expanded to two full-time cars each at around $15 million a pop.

One…