The charter system overhauled the ways drivers are compensated because it created 36 ownership charters in NASCAR. These teams have regular sponsors and drivers, plus reliable race results.
According to Autoweek, the 36 ownership charter teams earn shared perks of competing in the NASCAR Cup Series, including having a guaranteed starting position in every race. There are also four open teams in the system that do not have guaranteed revenue. These slots are available to newer teams trying to break into the Sprint Cup circuit.
But each charter is valued differently. Their value is based on things like the team’s historic significance and standing over several seasons. Compensation for the chartered teams is based on guaranteed revenue, the team’s performance over the past three seasons, a points fund with cash payouts, and the race purse, which is doled out based on a driver’s finishing position.
Teams can sell their charters or transfer them to another team. And NASCAR can revoke a team’s charter if a team finishes in the bottom three of the 36 charter teams for three consecutive years.
Despite suggesting it would be transparent with its new financial system, NASCAR won’t give details about how it distributes the prize money, even to some drivers. The money now is awarded to teams, not drivers, under this system.
Then-NASCAR chief operating officer Brent Dewar told NBC Sports they decided not to make total purse and individual winnings public for each race because “it’s not contemporary” under the charter system. “It’s a new foundation and a new era,” Dewar said in 2016. “We’ve changed a lot of things from that old model to this model. That’s one of the things that was from a different time and place.”
