No big deal. Right now.
That’s the initial reaction from many after the charter system announcement released by INDYCAR on Monday morning (Sept. 23).
Breathe in, and out, because the short-term outlook is alright. But if you want to be perplexed or concerned about the future, go right ahead, that might be warranted.
First, the facts. The series will start with 25 chartered teams in 2025, which will guarantee those entries eligibility for the $1 million Leaders Circle program pays out to the top 22 in points each year, as well as guaranteed starting spots at every race except the Indianapolis 500. Teams may only have three charters per operation but can field additional cars if they wish. A 27-car field cap will be in place everywhere but Indianapolis.
That’s the basics of it. Should fans care about that? Probably not.
There were 27 cars at all but two races this year, the Indy 500 and Portland. The owners are in no different situation than they were to start the recently completed season. Except now they possess an agreed-upon right to receive a cut of the Leaders Circle payout if they finish in the top 22 and, in theory, sell that to an interested buyer.
It took the series months to legislate and draft a system that was basically in place already, with the one caveat being that teams possessed nothing of value to sell if they got out of the sport. The one sensitive topic that was proposed – guaranteed spots in the Indy 500 – was quickly set aside but not forgotten, I’m sure, after public outrage at the idea teams would receive automatic admittance into the Greatest Spectacle in Racing. Again, it took months for this to be worked out.
What a waste of time.
Why? Let’s examine a couple of things here, and please send me smoke signals if I’m off base, because I’m not a multi-million dollar businessman.
Heading into 2024, if IndyCar teams finished in the top 22 in points, with only three of Chip Ganassi Racing’s five cars eligible, then $1 million was earned. Each entry was already safe in every race outside of Indianapolis. Even in the case of Portland when Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing expanded and there were 28 cars on the grid, no one went home.
To make the grid for the Indy 500, the teams had to be one of the fastest 33, which Dale Coyne Racing’s No. 18 with Nolan Siegel was not.
That’s exactly what teams will get in 2025. That really took months to figure out?
All of this was motivated by the need to give the owners something they could sell if they ever left the series or retired. If they have a charter, they could sell it to an interested buyer, who would take it and then be eligible for an IndyCar payout at the end of the year if they finished in the top 22.
That’s fine and dandy, give the owners what they want so they can sell their piece of paper and make some money on their way out. Personally, I don’t see the value to someone in buying an IndyCar charter at present and think that building a charter barrier to get into the sport is a bad idea.
Any Indy NXT team like HMD or Abel Motorsports who are looking to give it a go in the IndyCar Series are now going to have to invest money in a charter before even buying equipment, just to attempt to be an entry. If I was in their shoes, and all the charter did was guarantee me $1 million if I finished in the top 22, I’d say no thanks. Passion wouldn’t be enough to motivate me to buy equipment, personnel and hire a driver, and on top of that have to buy a charter to ensure I get a Leaders Circle payout. Not worth it.
Fans don’t need to worry though. As there are 27 cars, things are good in the meantime, but that may change if the leadership has their way.
By capping the field at 27 cars and, per RACER‘s Marshall Pruett, 25 cars in the future, the series is going to shrink the on-track product. Out of all of this months-long chatter, this was the most frustrating aspect for fans. Limiting the field and spurring the growth is a detriment to the product fans will see. The equation is simple – more cars on track means more racing. It means lapped traffic and opportunities for overtaking, just like what happened at the season finale at Nashville when Pato O’Ward was held up by a slow car, and Colton Herta took advantage. There will be more strategies at play and other storylines. Drivers like Toby Sowery and Hunter McElrea can still get shots to make the big show.
But let’s just freeze that, says the series. Instead, shrink the amount of cars on the grid, so that way when a seven-car accident happens, only 18 cars are left to participate. Instead of 20. Or 21. Yeah, let’s lessen the racing that fans will have the opportunity to see. Now remember, this is a series that prides itself on its racing product. So to enhance that, they are going to remove some cars.
When it comes to cars on the grid, fans do not want quality over quantity. The owners need to quit saying that. They are not in the stands watching with them, they are trying to make their sport selective and therefore, in theory, drive up perceived value for admittance. Fans don’t give a lick. They want cars on the track and want to see those cars racing, it’s why they attend.
It’s why 33 is so important at Indianapolis, and when the field was consistently at 27, fans had that to point at as a positive. But, with the cap, IndyCar will be able to market itself as a country club to any interested owners.
Oh, by the way, IndyCar, if you haven’t noticed, you still have a marketing and promotional problem. Less than 500,000 viewers watched your season finale, and as far as I know, I haven’t seen your three-time champion Alex Palou on any national sports shows, or a media tour, nor have we seen major outlets courting his presence.
Meanwhile, fans are being hit over the head with quotes from the series that tracks they’ve been to before aren’t where they are going. Instead, it seems a possible street circuit in downtown Dallas is going to be better than returning to an oval in Texas. That makes sense, it’s easier to fill a place with 10,000 seats spread over a few city blocks than fill a permanent facility because nobody knows the series is in town.
I have a theory of why IndyCar is looking at new markets. Because they have to. Former partners didn’t make money off the series running an event there and so they moved on. Fans have to show up at the race, and that starts first with building a fanbase. Looking at the television audience, it seems the series might want to invest more into that than into a half-baked charter system.
All of this will be moot if the series can show some sustained growth, as in super stellar growth like NASCAR accomplished at the turn of the millennium and, to a lesser extent, like Formula 1 has seen since Liberty Media took over. That will prove me wrong, and I am absolutely fine with that. I’ve been married for 18 years, I’ve been told I’m wrong plenty of times, and I was wrong about the short oval package this year.
Unfortunately, IndyCar has not shown that growth. Television numbers went down this year, only 14 different venues held points-paying races, the one addition for 2025 is a private racing resort — which fits in with the country club message — ovals still aren’t selling out, hybrids made little impact and the season is still 6 months long.
At least there are charters. Thank goodness IndyCar put so much of their time and effort into that over the last year so fans can have the opportunity to see fewer cars on track in the ensuing years.
So 27 cars will start at St. Pete. Very good news, but what happens in the future when the sport downsizes to 25 cars to boost value? This will increase the challenge of filling the field for the most important race, which is the Indy 500. Fewer full-time cars mean more one-off entries to fill the 33 spots. Fewer interested owners mean charter teams have to fill the field. In 2003, this situation played out during the Month of May as it took until the very final day of qualifying for the race’s 33rd entry to be verified.
So if future Indy 500s have less than 33, due to this gated IndyCar entry system, then that’s a problem.
That’s a big deal, after all.
Tom is an IndyCar writer at Frontstretch, joining in March 2023. Besides writing the IndyCar Previews and frequent editions of Inside IndyCar, he will hop on as a fill-in guest on the Open Wheel podcast The Pit Straight. A native Hoosier, he calls Fort Wayne home. Follow Tom on Twitter @TomBlackburn42.