Dale Earnhardt Jr. predicts NASCAR Cup charter price “is going to go to the moon”
NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. has revealed the significant increase in Cup charter prices and had predicted it’s future.
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Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Via abc30)
One of the biggest point discussions for many years has been the return of the Earnhardt brand to the Cup Series with JR Motorsports that is co-owned by Kelly Earnhardt Miller and Dale Earnhardt Jr. The fans got experience the much-anticipated moment in the 2025 Daytona 500, where they made a part-time appearance. But still a full-time entry still remains a dream.
In his latest appearance on the Happy Hour podcast of 2014 Cup champion Kevin Harvick, the two times Xfinity Series champion Dale Earnhardt Jr. discussed the topic. During the discussion he revealed one of the biggest hurdles, which he has been talking about for a long-time. The barriers to entry to the Cup includes a significant spending, that is not on the car.
I have been around long enough to remember that if you and I just woke up one day and said, ‘Man, we’re going to enter a Cup car in any race we want,’ we can go find us a car, find us a driver, get all the parts and go do it, right? Now, there’s some couple hoops. You’ve got to get licensed and got to enter the car, pay the money, the entry fee, all that good stuff.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. said via Happy Hour podcast of Kevin Harvick.
It has been the biggest thing that has been holding back Junior from buying a charter in the Cup Series, though he really wants to own one. He is insistent that if he buys one charter, it needs to be a long-term investment that his daughters can get the benefit in the future. At the moment, Junior doesn’t see that in the charters.
But the more he waits, the more he will miss out on the opportunity to buy one as he himself admitted that the charter price is going through the roof at the moment. Now it cost $50 million, but within a handful of years, there is possibility that it will his $200 million. This makes him regret not buying one, when the process was comparatively cheap, a decade ago. The sport is becoming a super-rich playground.
Today, to just get out there and compete, you need that $50 million charter, and that charter is going to be $100 million and $150 million and $200 million — it’s going to go to the moon over the next several years. It was a good time to buy it 10 years ago. I regret that I didn’t. But it’s become this place where only people with that kind of money can play.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. added.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. asserts open Cup entry isn’t a realistic option in the long run
In the same conversation, Junior discussed how tough it is to race in the Cup as an open team. He doesn’t believe it’s a realistic option anymore as the NASCAR world has known it was had changed a lot and there is so much additional cost the teams can no longer bear.
The world, the NASCAR that I knew, in terms of just being able to field the car and go race, doesn’t exist anymore. That’s hard for me to just believe, that we’re in that — for me to go run an open car isn’t realistic. It’s not realistic for anybody to do it every single week.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. said.
There are positives to the rise in charter price as well. It is a great sign that the sport is growing, and produce more revenue generating opportunities for the investors that are coming in. It also gives the exiting owners that has experienced huge losses the opportunity to make a good return on investment.
But while that is tough for me to stomach, it is incredibly great for the current people that are involved in the sport. Great for NASCAR, great for the France family, great for the owners and teams that have those charters that are appreciating year after year, hour after hour.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. added.
The word from Junior shows he is regretting not getting a charter earlier and seem to also regretting the fact that he still can’t get a charter deal. He should work on securing a good investment soon to buy a Cup charter for JRM as if he fails now, the Earnhardt’s will have a tough time to make it back to the top tier as a full-time team.
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