NASCAR News: Kelley Earnhardt Miller reveals why JR Motorsports didn't pursue Cup Series charter

JR Motorsports co-owner Kelley Earnhardt Miller has opened up on the team's decision not to pursue a charter in the NASCAR Cup Series.

NASCAR first introduced the charter system in the Cup Series in 2016, which distributed 36 full-time charters to teams in what was a landmark moment for the sport.

Cup Series charters guaranteed these teams a starting spot in each race, as well as access to a revenue-sharing system. The original agreement went on to last for nine years before a new charter agreement was signed in 2024.

However, after 23XI and Front Row Motorsports sued NASCAR after refusing to sign that deal, after a lengthy legal battle, executives were forced to make concessions, making the charters evergreen and granting the teams a larger share of various revenue streams.

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Why JR Motorsports passed on NASCAR Cup Series charter

Had those things been in place when the charters were first created, JR Motorsports - who ran in the Xfinity Series (now O'Reilly Series) at the time and continues to do so - may well have pursued one.

However, team co-owner Earnhardt Miller says that at the time, the team didn't see enough incentive from a business perspective to make the step up.

“We were happy being an Xfinity team, you know?” Earnhardt Miller explained on the Business of Motorsports podcast this week. “And we're still happy being an Xfinity team. We love what we do.

“I think at the time when the charters started getting traded there, and it was a million here or 2 million there that somebody was selling their Charter for, and still that mindset, which we've talked a little bit about today, about that old school mindset.

“The mindset was, ‘Okay, well, where is there money to be made and how is this gonna work?’ My apprehension to the charter system the entire time was the fact that they weren't permanent; I just can't imagine wrapping my head about making this investment into something that didn't have permanency."

Earnhardt Miller: Charter investment didn't make sense

“So looking at it like an investment vehicle was sort of foreign, and it didn't make sense to me, and so when we started seeing these charters trade back then for what we thought was a lot … We knew what the finances of racing looked like and we just couldn't believe that there were people that were willing to come in and buy those and, and start their team and and do all the things," Earnhardt Miller continued.

“But you know, hindsight's 20/20, and look what it's shown us. The charter values have continued to grow. They've continued to climb; now they're permanent.

“And so yeah, you look at those situations, you thought, ‘What an idiot we are now.’ But we also were happy; we're happy doing what we're doing.”