The NASCAR silly season just keeps on delivering! Apart from the rumors and speculations surrounding SHR’s charter sale, there’s a new update regarding the charter negotiations. One that might ruffle some feathers for teams like Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing.

By all means, teams and NASCAR should have already reached an agreement to conclude the negotiation of a new deal. However, a power struggle and demands for a better piece of the revenue pie have resulted in a stalemate situation. And according to a recent report by Jordan Bianchi, it seems like NASCAR is now putting a new cap on the number of charters a team can own.

The new provision would only allow the team to run and operate three charters, and this is indeed disappointing news for powerhouse teams like JGR and HMS. Apart from these two teams, only Stewart Haas Racing runs four cars, but they are expected to be out of the equation with their future in question. If indeed such a provision is put into effect, not just 4 SHR charters but an additional 2 will be made available on the market ahead of 2025.

However, the report did state that Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing would be exempted from the new provision. But this didn’t stop the fans from coming up with their theories and assumptions about how it would affect the future of the sport.

Fans react to NASCAR’s new proposal to limit three charters for each team

We have seen how the Next Gen car has affected racing with its idea of parity racing. And if this new proposal is to be implemented, this could lead to parity within the teams. Thus further deteriorating the quality of races. “first it was car parity, now they want team parity”.

Given that JGR and HMS would be allowed to run four charters as they are exempted from the new cap rule, it could potentially lead to an uneven playing field. Questioning NASCAR’s proposal, many race fans stated, “Why cap it to 3 then if it doesnt even apply to everyone?” 

Some suspected, other fellow NASCAR Cup teams trying to end JGR and HMS’s dominance over the years. “This is definitely the Spire, Trackhouse, 23XI, Roush, RCR, FRM group trying to break up the Gibbs, SHR, Hendrick brigades”.

The value of charters is not in the range of $40 million like they were a year ago. But with already four SHR charters rumored to be on the market, an addition of two more would further plummet the valuation of charters.  “If Hendrick and Gibbs are forced to sell a charter it guarantees that said charter will go for well below market rate. That would just be bad all around”. 

Predicting the future scenario of three charter teams, one fan replied, “I am sure there will be shenanigans as a loophole – Penske already has the Wood Brothers. One of Gibbs’ will transfer to 23XI, Hendrick will have Trackhouse or JRM – so really nothing will change”.

For the time being, it’s just a proposal, and given the team’s stern stand against NASCAR’s offer to extend the charter deal, this provision is expected to undergo tweaks and changes.