The NTT IndyCar Series now has a charter system.
Starting next season, there will be 25 entrants that will take part in the program that guarantees entry into every race (except the Indianapolis 500) and will be eligible for the $1 million bonus checks paid out to the top-22 teams in owner points at the end of the season.
In other words, the three chartered teams that finish 23-25 between them will not receive that bonus. The Leader’s Circle still resets after each season, meaning there isn’t something similar to the three-year rolling average value that NASCAR charters provide.
The inaugural system runs through 2031, the length of the television rights agreement with FOX Sports. However, unlike the NASCAR system, charters do not pay out guaranteed revenue beyond the 1$ million bonus to make the top-22.
All 10 full-time teams that participated in the 2024 season received charters but Chip Ganassi Racing had to drop a full-time car to get below the three-car maximum and is instead entering the Indy NXT Series next season.
The charters have been awarded, alphabetically, to the following teams:
AJ Foyt Racing (2)
Andretti Global (3)
Arrow McLaren (3)
Chip Ganassi Racing (3)
Dale Coyne Racing (2)
Ed Carpenter Racing (2)
Juncos Hollinger Racing (2)
Mayer Shank Racing (2)
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (3)
Team Penske (3)
The Indianapolis 500 will continue to be regulated as it has been, with the fastest 33 cars making The Greatest Spectacle in Racing regardless of charter status, and with teams being able to exceed the team cap for one-offs into it.
Prema Racing, which has announced a two-car program starting in 2025, did not receive charters.
IndyCar is expected to cap fields at 27 cars next year for all non-Indianapolis 500 races, but that number is not baked into the charter system and will permit IndyCar to eventually potentially cap entries at 25, for just the chartered teams.
Reading between the lines, this is clearly providing a runway for Prema to find a way into the system, by acquiring another team’s charters at some point.
RACER.com reports what is being called the Dale Coyne Racing rule, which limits chartered teams to using a maximum of only three drivers for each car number after that team used four drivers in the No. 19 and six in the No. 51 co-owned by Rick Ware Racing.
Again, reading between the lines, if Coyne cannot run the business of team ownership using the maximum driver allotment per car, it would have to sell its charter(s) to an interested team.
So in a lot of ways, this is not a carbon copy of the NASCAR system, nor is it the franchise model used by the Championship Auto Racing Teams series or Formula 1’s Concorde Agreement. But those who own charters are permitted to seek outside investors and can sell their charters to an interested new entry.
IndyCar owns the charters and will earn a percentage of revenue in each transaction.
Team quotes
“I appreciate the efforts made by the INDYCAR and Penske leadership groups, as well as all the owners, to get this charter system started. It is incredibly challenging to get a large group of owners to agree on something, and certainly there was some give and take, but, in the end, I believe this is a path that is beneficial for all of the owners and for INDYCAR, while also maintaining the availability for open competition.” – Larry Foyt, A.J. Foyt Enterprises
“When you look back in the modern era of INDYCAR racing, you will look at a few important moments, the first being the unification of the sport, the next being Roger Penske buying the INDYCAR SERIES and IMS, and I truly believe the third will be the charter system.” – Chip Ganassi, Chip Ganassi Racing
“We are very pleased to begin this new era. The process has been thorough but, in the end, very exciting. This charter system will clearly strengthen our teams as we continue to grow the sport. I would like to thank Roger (Penske) and his entire team at INDYCAR.
“ECR will have announcements soon, and I don’t know that they would be possible without the help of a program like this. With this groundbreaking development, the new TV deal with FOX and the momentum that had been building, INDYCAR’s future is very bright.” – Ed Carpenter, Ed Carpenter Racing
“The charter agreement, to me, is the single-most important piece for the future of the series. I’m grateful that we all came together on this and thank the Roger Penske group for working with the team owners for getting it done.” – Michael Shank, Meyer Shank Racing