Fans React as Charter Prices Skyrocket to $20 Million, More Than 48% of What Michael Jordan’s NASCAR Team Paid Last Year

At the risk of sounding like Captain Obvious, it is horribly expensive to maintain a NASCAR Cup Series team. It is worth mentioning that if 23XI Racing wants to expand to three cars, they will have to pay a lot more. Earlier this year, the team announced that they were recruiting Tyler Reddick for the 2024 Cup season. Now their options are to either let go of one driver or try to field three.

Last year when they bought a second charter for Kurt Busch to drive, it cost around $13.5 million. This time around, the charter price has been hiked to around $20M, as per reports.

Admittedly, there is still a lot of skepticism from critics about the true value of the charters. As it turned out, the $13.5 million sale was a record fee, and now there is a 48% increase in the price.

What prompted this sudden price hike in NASCAR?

Several factors apparently played a role in the rise in asking prices. Chief among them is the teams’ hope that there will be a tantalizing TV deal that will see them earn a bigger share. Reports suggest that the sport earns an astounding $820 million from media partners, and the teams are privy to 25% of the cut.

Now, there are ongoing talks with NASCAR to increase the cut when the next media deal kicks off in 2025. As a result, some teams are holding charters in the hope that their value will increase.

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Some predict that the likes of Rick Ware Racing, Spire Motorsports, and Live Fast Motorsports may sell their charters. This will work perfectly well for teams like JR Motorsports, 23XI Racing, and others.

Of course, the biggest concern is that the prices are too high, and the guaranteed revenues are the same. Since 2016, charter teams have had to pay around $5M annually per car. However, everything depends on how the team performs on the track. Now, everything is banking on the new deal in 2025 and how it will affect teams and charters.

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