Dale Earnhardt Jr. hypothesized on Tuesday what would happen to the NASCAR Cup Series if the lawsuit brought by 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports reached a settlement and by Thursday the frameworks of the ‘what if’ were made a reality.
Speaking with his sister and business partner Kelley Earnhardt-Miller on their podcast, Earnhardt said permanent charters would effectively make the Cup Series a franchise model like stick-and-ball sports while also drastically increasing the value of those who own them.
Again, this was a hypothetical exercise on Tuesday, but as of this weekend, these are all valid points with the trial reaching the conclusion the Hall of Famer mapped out.
“If the charter remains nothing more than a guaranteed entry into a single event, I think then values remain where they are today. What the teams have recognized are if those charters were to become permanent and therefore basically a franchise, the values are well north of $150 million. So, you’re sitting there with a charter that’s worth let’s say $25 million and by the stroke of Jim France’s pen, it will now be $150 million,” Earnhardt said on the latest Dale Jr. Download. “If you’re a charter owner, of course you’re hoping for that to happen. I believe, secretly, even the people that signed the Charter Agreement that someway, somehow, in the end, that these do become permanent. That is the ultimate decision that I think comes out of this whole trial.
“They’ll be some other little nuances of will 23XI and Bob Jenkins be rewarded some damages, will this lever get pulled, will this little thing get changed, will somebody lose a job, will this person get replaced? All those things may happen, could happen but ultimately, I think what we are deciding is do the charters become franchises, do they become permanent and realized in new value north of $150 million?”
The Earnhardts, who own JR Motorsports and want to compete in the Cup Series as full-time entrants someday, know the barrier to entry is going to increase tremendously now.
“If that happens, there is no going back. Like, it changes the sport forever,” Earnhardt said. “You’ll basically have 36 franchises — however many cars start a race — they’ll be the franchises, owned and valued and they will sell and trade from one entity to another over the course of decades and centuries, however long this goes. They’ll be a gigantic barrier of entry.
“As we’ve known racing for 75 years, if you wanted to build a Cup car and show up at a race and try to compete, you did. Probably not gonna go all that well, you’re gonna compete against the regular teams and that’s what it was, but you could. That’ll be gone forever.”
JR Motorsports mulled purchasing a charter in the earliest days of the system, when one could have been had for $1 million, the price Michael Waltrip Racing’s charters went for, but they didn’t get on the system then.
It’s worth noting that the arrival of new OEMs, with Stellantis’ Dodge brand and Honda both looking like realistic opportunities, could allow NASCAR to release up to four charters in the market place and another chance for a team like JRM to get in.
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
– The Motorsport.com Team
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: motorsport.com
