NASCAR Announces 2017 Charter Teams

The 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season is only eight weeks away which means that it’s time for NASCAR fans to start the countdown if they haven’t done so already. On Thursday NASCAR confirmed all of the charters for the 2017 season, another sign that Daytona isn’t that far away.

In the world of NASCAR, a NASCAR charter is like a golden ticket, especially if you’re a smaller team. A NASCAR charter guarantees the team it belongs to will compete in all 36 races during the season. Such a guarantee is anything but a certainty for some of the smaller operations in NASCAR that don’t have the funds or talent of teams like Joe Gibbs Racing, Hendrick Motorsports or Stewart-Haas Racing.

Teams without a charter have to qualify for every race based on speed and if more than 40 cars come to the track to qualify for any given race, one time without a charter will not have a spot on the starting grid.

On Thursday NASCAR confirmed all of the charters ahead of the start of the 2017 season. During the off-season there has been some movement with charters as teams have come and gone and drivers have moved around. Below is an updated look at which teams have charters and the cars that those charters cover.

Currently there are 35 teams with charters for the 2017 season which means that in any given race there could be as many as five spots available for non-chartered drivers to race their way into the event.

The 2017 season will kickoff in seven weeks in Daytona with the Clash at Daytona. Following that will be the first race of the 2017 season, the Daytona 500.