“You don’t even have a racecar yet. You spend 90 million dollars, 100 million dollars, and then you gotta build a race team.” That’s how Dale Earnhardt Jr. summed up the state of NASCAR Cup Series ownership just last month. And, surely, he’s not exaggerating. Dale Jr. has never been shy about speaking his mind, but lately, he’s been especially vocal about the sky-high costs and the complicated charter system that now dominates the sport.
From his days watching his dad’s team build cars in the garage to his current role as a team owner in the Xfinity Series, Dale Jr. has seen NASCAR’s business transform firsthand. Now, with charters fetching record prices and private equity groups swooping in, he’s sounding the alarm about how hard it’s become for new owners to break into the Cup Series.
And as the numbers keep climbing, so does his frustration with the system.
Reflecting on the path to owning a NASCAR Cup Series team, Junior said, “Now there are some couple hoops to license, got to get licensed, and got to enter the car, pay the money, the entry fee, all that good stuff,” he explained. In the past, a determined group could scrape together a car, a driver, and some parts, then take their shot at the big leagues. Today, the process is far more complex and expensive, with the charter system acting as a gatekeeper.
To even compete full-time in the Cup Series now, a team needs to secure a charter. A charter is essentially a franchise slot that guarantees entry and a share of the purse at every points race. But as Dale Jr. pointed out, “Today to get just out there and compete, you need that $50 million charter. ut today to get just out there and compete you need that $50 million charter and that charter is going to be 100 million and 150 million and 200 [million]. It’s going to go to the moon over the next several years. It was a good time to buy it 10 years ago. I regret that I didn’t. But it’s become this place where only people with that kind of money can play and the NASCAR that I knew in terms of just being able to field a car and go race, doesn’t exist anymore.”
That’s not an exaggeration. The recent deal between Rick Ware Racing and Legacy Motor Club set a new benchmark. Legacy reportedly paid around $45 million for a single charter. And now, no team selling their charter will look for anything less than this.
This figure dwarfs previous deals and signals just how high the barrier to entry has climbed. Moreover, charter prices have been on a rocket ride. At the end of 2021, 23XI Racing acquired a charter from Starcom Racing for $13.5 million. Last year, Front Row Motorsports bought a charter from Stewart-Haas Racing for between $20 and $25 million.
And, the Rick Ware-Legacy price is no secret. It’s twice what FRM paid for SHR! The surge is fueled by expectations of richer TV deals and the growing value of guaranteed Cup participation.
This escalation has transformed NASCAR ownership into a playground for the ultra-wealthy and corporations. Big-money players like Michael Jordan’s 23XI Racing, Trackhouse Racing’s Justin Marks and Pitbull(though he has left now), and private equity groups have all entered the fray. For independent racers and smaller teams, the dream of simply building a car and going racing is slipping further out of reach. As Dale Jr. laments, “Only people with that kind of money can play.”
And this isn’t the first time Junior has spoken about this. After Justin Allgaier appeared for JR Motorsports at the Daytona 500, Junior was clear about his plans. “What would need to happen is an investor, somebody who wants to partner that — I’m not gonna give you $40 million for that charter. I’m not doing that. That’s not something I’m interested in doing. That’s my prerogative. Now, I would invest $5M or $10M in the right situation. $5M, absolutely. Maybe more of my own money. So there’s, you know, 20% ownership. That’s probably a very comfortable place for me to be. When I look at an NFL franchise, there are majority owners, but there’s also a lot of minority people, as well. I believe that owning around 20% of the charter would be satisfactory for me, personally.”
This is a far cry from the NASCAR he grew up with.
Too much investment, too little return?
For today’s NASCAR Cup teams, the financial equation is looking worse every year. While the sport’s revenues sound impressive on paper, the reality for most teams is a constant struggle to break even. Sponsorship revenue across the Cup Series dropped nearly 16% from 2023 to 2025. Teams like Joe Gibbs Racing led the pack at $116 million. But, on the other hand, Richard Childress Racing saw a 50% plunge to just $52.9 million.
Undoubtedly, the $1 million winner’s prize sounds huge! But for teams like Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s or Denny Hamlin’s, the costs to race a car for this single event can approach $2 million. That’s before factoring in the risk of wrecks or mechanical failures.
Last year, Hamlin made it clear just how difficult things can get. “As someone who started a team from scratch and kept it as lean as I could, there are MANY other depts at a race team that are 100% necessary to operate. Business, marketing, sponsorship, social media, it goes on and on. That all cost a significant amount of money that is above and beyond the numbers listed above. That money is spent as not only as a necessity for our team but to grow the sport thru on and off the track activation
As costs rise and returns shrink, the question looms. How long can this model hold before even more teams are priced out? And what does that mean for the future of NASCAR’s competitive spirit?
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