NASCAR icon and JR Motorsports owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. has been long involved in talks of purchasing a Cup Series charter. With Stewart-Haas Racing being dissolved at the end of the 2024 season those talks gained strength over the past few weeks. However, the former driver has some reservations of his own when it comes to investing in the premier tier.
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Speaking in a recent episode of “Dale Jr. Download”, he revealed that his sister Kelley Earnhardt, the CEO of JR Motorsports, and he have always been considering opportunities to be Cup Series, team owners. Though none of the chances that came their way have panned out so far, Junior affirms that they’re still at the table talking to different teams about partnering or investing.
An issue that the Earnhardt siblings have with partnerships is that they might not have control of the operations. As the de facto leaders of JR Motorsports, they expect to hold a similar position when entering the Cup Series.
“Trying to part from that is tough because if we are doing something with a partner or something that’s already existing, we are not gonna be making any decisions,” Dale Jr. reasoned.
Dale and Kelley are “still at the table” when it comes to Cup charter ownership. ️ pic.twitter.com/oa2w4NcyDb
— Dirty Mo Media (@DirtyMoMedia) June 5, 2024
Another hurdle in front of them is the price of charters. Since their introduction in 2016, charters have grown over tenfold in value. This trend is only set to increase with the growth in NASCAR’s popularity and reach.
For the Earnhardts, this means putting in a huge sum of money that they’ll, in all possibility, never see again. The question lies in how much they want to be premier owners despite all these snags.
The two routes that Dale Earhardt Jr. could take to enter the Cup Series
Talking to SiriusXM NASCAR Radio last month, Dale Jr. detailed the two ways he could be a Cup Series owner. The first way is to look for external financial assistance that would aid him in purchasing charters to make JR Motorsports a Cup Series team. If that isn’t possible, he wants to invest in a single charter that is owned by an existing team.
He said, “If I can’t own my own Cup race team and run it as we do, similar to JR Motorsports, my preference might be more to just invest in a single charter, one particular race car where I would have some influence over that actual car on the race track.” For now, the Earnhardts have their ears to the ground seeking fresh seizable opportunities.
