IndyCar charters: What we know about the document delivered to teams at Gateway

Roger Penske, owner of Penske Entertainment and Team Penske, poses with Indy 500 Josef Newgarden.

IndyCar management Penske Entertainment delivered its first formal charter documents to teams ahead of this Saturday’s Gateway night race.

This charter system would effectively transform IndyCar teams into franchises, where the team would gain value beyond its physical assets — but the charter concept has come with ample critique. Let’s dig into what we know so far.

IndyCar charters: What we know so far

RACER magazine learned that Penske Entertainment issued its first formal charter agreement to IndyCar’s 10 full-time teams.

According to information from RACER, this initial in-depth proposal runs roughly 40 pages. Team owners are expected to review the document and offer feedback on the contents of the charter.

After that point, Penske Entertainment will review the feedback and implement changes. Then, it will issue a final document to be distributed for signatures and potentially further changes.

While the exact details are unclear as of this moment, the charter will guarantee entries to a maximum three cars from each full-time team, for a total of 25 charters.

Understanding IndyCar:

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RACER has had the latest information about charter developments, and the site now reports that many of the basic details have been confirmed.

There are currently 10 full-time teams in IndyCar; those teams will be offered a maximum of three charters per team, for a grand total of 25 charters. A limit of 27 cars is expected to be placed on every race aside from the Indianapolis 500, where 33 cars traditionally start.

Chartered cars will otherwise be guaranteed 25 of the 27 grid slots, with non-chartered cars competing for the final slots on the grid.

The top 22 teams in the championship standings will be offered entry into the Leaders’ Circle program, which grants $1 million to those who qualify. Only chartered teams are eligible.

There are a handful of new developments and further information, RACER learned.

Invitations to the charter program will be based on the results for IndyCar’s 2023 entrants’ championship. Only full-time teams in that championship will be offered invitations. Newcomers like Prema, or part-time teams, will not be eligible to receive an invitation.

Further, teams will only be offered charter invitations based on the number of cars they entered in 2023, with a maximum of three. So, a two-car team in 2023 would only be offered two charters, even if that team were to have expanded to a three-car operation in 2024.

There is also an alleged “Dale Coyne rule” in the charter. This rule would limit the number of drivers any individual entry can field in a season to there.

This rule is obviously directed at Dale Coyne Racing. The No. 51 Dale Coyne machine has run with six drivers this season, and the No. 18 with four. Though the revolving door of drivers is not necessarily a great look for IndyCar, those drivers all bring the funding necessary to power a smaller team like DCR.

Of course, this current charter draft is just that: a draft. There’s no telling what rules will filter through to the final copy, or what changes teams will make along the way.

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