NASCAR
Bob Pockrass, NASCAR 6y

Updating the 'charter race' for 2018

NASCAR

With less than four weeks before Daytona 500 qualifying, several teams are still jockeying for position in the sport's biggest event.

NASCAR has not announced which teams will have charters in 2018, and many of the underfunded team owners could still seek deals as they look to either pay off last year's bills or make sure they have enough money to get through 2018.

A little background: NASCAR started the charter system in 2016, awarding 36 charters to team owners. Each charter guarantees a starting spot in each race (the maximum number of cars in the field is 40) plus a base revenue that is more than three times that of a non-charter team. Charter teams also receive revenue based on the last three years' performance of the car(s) associated with that charter, with more weight given to the most recent years.

Only three team owners have confirmed their charter moves: Roush Fenway Racing confirmed two weeks ago it had sold a charter to Penske Racing, which will use it for the car it added in 2018 for Ryan Blaney. The charter Roush sold was leased to JTG Daugherty Racing in 2017 for Chris Buescher, who will have a charter as JTG Daugherty has purchased the charter used by Furniture Row Racing's No. 77 team and Erik Jones.

Wood Brothers Racing secured a charter for new driver Paul Menard from a familiar source. It leased a charter in 2017 from Go Fas Racing and will use that charter again as it formed a partnership with Go Fas owner Archie St. Hilaire. The Wood Brothers have full long-term operational control of the charter, which is co-owned by Wood Brothers Racing and St. Hilaire. The arrangement had to be done that way because a charter can only be leased once every five years. The partnership is for the charter only -- there is no technical alliance between Wood Brothers Racing and Go Fas Racing.

Go Fas Racing secured a charter for full-time driver Matt DiBenedetto by doing a partnership with Joe Falk, whose Circle Sport Racing ended a partnership with The Motorsports Group that fielded the No. 33 car last year.

Rick Ware Racing has indicated it expects to have charters for 2018 but has not said which teams it will get its charter from.

Among those without charters who raced last year were TriStar Motorsports, TMG and the startup StarCom Racing, which has driver Derrike Cope as its team manager but also has said it would take a driver with sponsorship for 2018.

Here are the ones in play:

  • The Richard Childress Racing No. 27 charter, which was used by Menard last year, appears it will be leased or sold. RCR has not announced a driver or whether it will field the car, and has given no indication it is staffed for it as crew chief Matt Borland already has left for Germain Racing.

  • Richard Petty Motorsports, which had the charter it used plus the one it leased to Go Fas Racing in 2017, is expected to either have leased or sold a charter to Rick Ware.

  • TriStar leased a charter from Front Row Motorsports last year. Theoretically, Front Row could use that charter and lease TriStar another one. But the problem is that that charter TriStar used -- the one Front Row bought from BK Racing after 2016 -- is the subject of a lawsuit, which Union Bank says it owns as part of an alleged default on a loan to BK Racing. The bank also has stated in court documents that it has rights to the charter BK Racing is using for its No. 23 car.

  • Premium Motorsports also has not announced what it is doing as far as its charter and cars. It has one charter from last year and fielded two cars for most races in 2017.

Of course, there is one driver who would love to race for a charter team for the Daytona 500: Danica Patrick. She has secured a sponsor in GoDaddy, but has yet to finalize a deal with a team. With the financial backing, she might be able to entice an established organization that doesn't have the maximum four cars to field a car for her for that one race.

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