Who Would Be the Best Fit to Buy JTG’s Charter?

With a rumored ownership shakeup at JTG Daugherty Racing, which team would be the best fit to buy its charter in a potential sale?

Mark Kristl: Trackhouse Racing. Between Shane van Gisbergen, Connor Zilisch and Zane Smith, the organization has three talented drivers. Yes, Smith drives full time in the NASCAR Cup Series, but he drives under a Spire Motorsports charter. Speaking of Spire, it has Rajah Caruth in its NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series program, not to mention other Chevrolet drivers might be ready to race full time in Cup sooner than later, such as Richard Childress Racing duo Jesse Love and Austin Hill. Spire has worked with other Chevy teams to fill its Truck lineup in the past, so the JTG charter is best served going to Trackhouse to allow Spire to have its No. 71 charter available for another Cup-ready prospect.

Austin Bass: Concerns regarding the long-term viability of the charter system aside, Trackhouse would make the most sense to acquire a third charter. It is one of the few competitive organizations with room to expand as it currently fields two teams, and it has shown the willingness to spend more than the going rate purchasing charters in the past. It’ll need to decide that again soon — the price of charters continues to skyrocket ever since it purchased Chip Ganassi Racing and kicked off the buying spree that has led us to this point — and it has an excess of developmental talent on its payroll vying for its coveted spots on the Cup starting grid. A third charter would alleviate many of those stressors.

Steve Leffew: Trackhouse is the obvious answer, but I’m going with RFK Racing. It’s been a four-car team before and seems to be rebounding. A third car would give it another data point and take another step in the rebuild toward its former glory.

Josh Calloni: Trackhouse, RFK or 23XI Racing are best in line to expand with the JTG charter sale. Trackhouse already has the Spire charter leased out for Smith, and with the emergence of van Gisbergen, the team conceivably has four Cup-quality drivers for three charters as it stands. The other two teams have seen improved success over the last two years while running with two-car operations.

Alex Bowman is making his 300th career NASCAR Cup Series start at Dover Motor Speedway. How do you assess his career so far?

Bass: Only 69 drivers in the history of Cup have won more times in 75 years than Alex Bowman. He isn’t Hall of Fame-worthy at this point…