A NASCAR style charter system is all the rage right now.
The High Limit Sprint Car Series intends to have a fully functioning revenue sharing program with a guaranteed feature starting spots by 2026 and now IndyCar is inching ever closer to a program that would lock full-time teams into the Indianapolis 500.
Such a decision would be a major break from tradition, and the spirit of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing, which for a majority of its history has set the field with the 33 fastest qualifiers regardless of full-time participation in the series.
This once again became a topic of conversation when full-time participant Graham Rahal failed to make the field in 2023 but only participated in the race when Stefan Wilson crashed in Monday practice before the race and was unable to compete.
Since purchasing the IndyCar Series and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2019, Roger Penske has maintained his long-held stance that full-time teams should not be able to miss the biggest race of the season, and that seems to be a key facet of what is basically an IndyCar charter system.
Should such a system be finalized in the coming months, to debut in the 2025 or 2026 seasons, it would not only guarantee annual cuts of series revenue, but could also be sold on the open market should a team owner want to cash in on their years-long investment in the sport or downsize their operation.
Indianapolis Star
The only exception to the fastest 33 philosophy came in 1996 and 1997 when the Indy Racing League and Indianapolis Motor Speedway split from the Championship Auto Racing Teams and promised guaranteed starting spots to the top-25 in IRL points with eight positions up for grabs for everyone eles.
It was part of the larger open-wheel split that tore Indy car racing apart and paved the way for NASCAR to become the top motorsports league in North America.
It’s a very unpopular concept amongst IndyCar’s most ardent fans but also one widely supported by the team owners most invested in growing the series.
The newspaper also detailed what the system would look like:
The number of locked-in entries would be somewhere between 22 and 25, meaning, more than likely, double-digit cars would fight over eight to 11 spots. As is the case this year, those one-off entries often times are filled by some of the sport’s biggest stars – Marco Andretti, Conor Daly, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Helio Castroneves and Kyle Larson in his debut. Assuming IndyCar still allows for full-time entries outside chartered status, it could also include some combination of drivers from both the largest and smallest teams, depending on the system’s final rules.
Indianapolis Star