The fact that Stewart-Haas Racing is going to be shutting down its Cup Series charters is having a huge impact on NASCAR. With the team dropping their charters, the drivers need to find a new team to join. Almost all the drivers were signed until the day before yesterday when Noah Gragson found himself at Front Row Motorsports. Although the team has two charters and 2 drivers, Jerry Freeze came forward to announce how they are making it possible.

Now that Stewart-Haas Racing has let go of most of its employees, Front Row Motorsports is taking full advantage of the situation to set up a third car for themselves. This finally makes room for Noah Gragson to join the team and start driving in 2025. In the interview, when Jerry Freeze was asked about how it feels to take on a new charter, the team’s GM broke down the nitty-gritty details of bringing on a third charter, and here is what he had to say about it.

Jerry Freeze explains how FRM will be able to accommodate Noah Gragson

Now that Noah Gragson has been confirmed to the team, Front Row Motorsports needs to get him a car and a pit crew. Luckily for FRM, the drivers were not the only ones who needed a new gig to remain in NASCAR. Many pit crew members from SHR are looking for new jobs, and Front Row Motorsports is receiving quite a few resumes from their end, says Freeze.

So when the interviewer asked him, “How big of a deal are three teams?”Jerry Freeze responded, saying, “Yeah, it’s a big deal. It’s fifty percent more headaches than two teams are.  I think our game plan and what we were setting up to do and find a different space for the truck team to move into a different location, and with the next generation, the next generation platform we race on, we’re limited to 7 chassis, our ship can accommodate three teams. I think we are much better off running three teams compared to the last time we tried it.”

The affirming message from Freeze instills confidence that they are ready to take on a third car despite their unsuccessful attempts in the past. Now with the team ready, the interviewer asked Jerry Freeze about the status of getting the charter, and this is what the GM said: “We technically don’t have a charter agreement for next year. We made a big plunge into it. I think we’re all pretty confident that an agreement’s going to be made. There is a lot of motivation on both sides to get it done.”

“We’re certainly participants in that, maybe not at the forefront of it. A lot of the feedback we get is that there’s some good progress being made, so hopefully that gets done sooner rather than later,” Freeze concluded. So now, the team is ready for the driver and to expand by bringing in a third car into the Cup Series. Hiring Noah Gragson was a good idea as if most of the pit crew were coming from SHR, they would already be comfortable working with each other.

However, the interviewer noticed something that Jerry Freeze had mentioned in the past about Noah Gragson. So let us take a look at one of the things about Gragson that added to Freeze’s interest of bringing him in.

Noah Gragson’s merchandise sales make him a more desirable driver

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“What do you want to say about Noah Gragson? You said you first noticed his merchandise sales were big,” stated the interviewer, putting the spotlight on Freeze’s past comments. After a soft chuckle, Freeze responded, “Yeah, well, that is true. Outside of just watching him on the racetrack and winning truck races or winning Xfinity races at Junior Motorsports, I never really noticed how the fans reacted until we started getting sales reports.”

When Jerry Freeze saw that Noah Gragson is 7th in merchandise sales, he started keeping an eye out for it on the tracks. Surely enough, he noticed the large number of fans wearing the Black Cap with Noah Gragson written in orange on them. This is when Freeze understood that not only is Gragson a good driver, he is also extremely popular among fans. Having a popular driver has its own benefits when it comes to landing sponsors for the team, and now that the former SHR driver is signing with them, FRM can expect a strong 2025.

Do you think that FRM will be able to secure the charter for their third car? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.