Owning a NASCAR race team is an inherently expensive line of work. In the Cup Series, expensive charters, which now go for close to $100 million, are all but necessary to compete full-time while keeping an organization’s head above water financially.
Kelley Earnhardt Miller explained Wednesday why JR Motorsports, the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series organization she co-owns with her brother, Dale Earnhardt Jr., was hesitant to buy a charter.
Why JRM didn’t go Cup racing
“Charters were issued to the 36 teams at the time [2016],” Earnhardt Miller said, per Dirty Mo Media. “Then they started trading. We were happy being an [O’Reilly Series] team. At the time, the mindset was, where is there money to be made? My apprehension to the charter system the entire time was the fact that they weren’t permanent.”
Charters officially became permanent when the lawsuit between 23XI Racing/Front Row Motorsports was settled in December 2025. The value of charters, even without the guarantee they would be needed one day for Cup Series competition, had continued to climb, with one Cup Series charter being sold recently for $45 million in 2025 before they were made permanent.