Hendrick Motorsports driver Kyle Larson co-owns the High Limit Sprint Car Series along with five-time World of Outlaws champion Brad Sweet. They announced back in December 2023 that they will be introducing a charter system, similar to the one in NASCAR, at the end of the 2024 season. The set goal was to have 10 fully functioning charters by the end of 2026 and begin revenue distribution.
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Since the format they chose to follow is similar to NASCAR’s, they have been able to learn and adapt from its mistakes, which is quite an extensive list. The premier stock car racing promotion had to threaten to retract its charters to get its new agreement signed by team owners last month. And yet, 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports have gone to the courts against it.
All this chaos proved plenty that NASCAR has not mastered the art of handling the charter system. Can Larson do it? He said in an interview last month, “We want it fair for everybody. So, we’re trying. Obviously, it’s on a way smaller scale so I don’t know if that makes it easier or harder. But yeah, we’re trying to figure out our own charter system.”
He also expressed the belief that how the sport has grown in publicity over the last year will help with implementing the charter system.
“I think it’s just about continuing to try to figure out what it is to grow the sport and the financials and make it even better for teams than it has been,” he noted. “I think this year’s been great because there’s more money to race for between all series and bigger events.”
Why is the High Limit Series opting for a charter system?
After all the charters are established, 50% of the media revenue will go to the teams owning them. They will receive the check in monthly installments that will vary based on team performance and other factors. But why do this when a big giant like NASCAR is struggling with it?
Sweet explained to The Sports Business Journal, “What we want to do is build High Limit and truly align ourselves with the team owners, who are the backbone of the sport and allow us (drivers) to showcase our skillset. We want to reward teams with a charter or franchise that aligns our interest so a revenue share as we grow together, they’ll be a part of the growing process.”
The promotion doesn’t allow teams to trade or lease these charters to others. Each owner can have a maximum of two charters to their name. Larson and Sweet are taking on a big challenge with this, but they appear to be fully conscious of their purpose. The top five teams in 2024 will be awarded the first set of charters soon.
