The Kyle Larson and Brad Sweet-owned High Limit Racing kicked off in 2023, and after three seasons, the series’ NASCAR inspiration is becoming more apparent. Owing to the growing competition, Sweet introduced a new franchise system for team owners, seemingly adapted from NASCAR’s Charter System.

While the concept may bring huge profits to High Limit Racing, it is unclear if the team owners will be willing to continue with their participation. At the same time, this seems to be a poor time for the series to introduce this, considering NASCAR is also engaged in a legal battle because of its charter system. However, Brad Sweet wants the owners to change their perspective towards the franchise system.

Brad Sweet wants team owners to think of the franchise system as an investment

In theory, the franchise system aims to make sprint-car racing more professional. Instead of a race-by-race entry system, team owners will have the power to purchase a limited number of permanent franchises (similar to NASCAR charters). These will function as ownership slots for the full-time team owners.

Teams will also earn a monthly revenue from High Limit Racing’s streaming and media income. This is also similar to NASCAR’s Charter System. These franchises will be treated like assets, with the ownership being transferable. This is seemingly the part where Brad Sweet and Kyle Larson want the team owners to focus on.

“When the first one does sell, I think that will give some fans, a team owner, some perspective on what it means to have a business associated with future earnings,” Sweet said. “That’s really the value of a business is what it can potentially bring in in the future. And with a card on the high roller club, you can know what the next year is going to bring and you can sell that to the next car owner.”

He feels that these franchises will be similar to an investment for the team owners. While it may sound superficial in theory, Sweet claims that their value will only increase in the future.

“When you decide that, hey, I’m going to go a different direction or I’m going to retire or whatnot, you have something into the future,” he explained.

“Obviously, this is early on, so we don’t know what the market demand and what those sale prices are necessarily going to be. But as the values show up in those earnings, as the guaranteed money goes up, those values are only going to go higher. So that’s what we want the team owners to understand and buy into and believe in.”

This idea feels rushed, especially considering how recently the series was founded. There is a possibility that Sweet and Larson could face some backlash for it.

Why could Kyle Larson and Brad Sweet’s franchise system face backlash?

The reception of the High Limit Series seems to be on the rise now amongst team owners. However, the franchise system could face a major backlash. It is noteworthy that the series was only founded in 2022 and began with the events a year later. Moreover, Sprint-car racing is built on independence instead of franchising.

Another major issue that the series could face is the lack of viewer consistency. The franchise system is based on the revenue that High Limit Racing will generate. However, their revenue is largely dependent on ticket sales, and they do not have a fixed audience for streaming. This could eventually lead to losses if they fail to generate enough revenue.

At the same time, NASCAR’s Charter System is under question. The sport is battling an antitrust lawsuit currently, related to the system.

While it is a new territory that the HLR series is stepping into, it will be interesting to see if the team owners comply with the system. Moreover, will they manage to generate enough revenue to cut profits from the system?