After a decade spent in the second tier of NASCAR, the next step would be the Cup Series. Yet, JR Motorsports never made that leap to full-time Cup racing. Kelley Earnhardt shed light on that decision.

During her recent appearance on 'Business of Motorsports' in an interview with Jeff Gluck, Kelley Earnhardt explained as to why they passed on the opportunity to secure the charter. 

"At the time, the mindset was, Where is their money to be made?" she said.  "And how is this going to work? My apprehension to the charter system the entire time was the fact that they weren't permanent. It didn't make sense to me." 

Back in 2016, NASCAR introduced its charter system and awarded one each for each full-time Cup Series team. This gave the teams a chance to own an asset in the sport for the first time. However, the Earhardt siblings passed on the opportunity. 

And since 2016, the charter prices have continued to soar. According to the reports released by Jordan Bianchi back in May, the charters are approaching $100 million. The charters were permanent as a part of NASCAR’s charter agreement post the Antitrust lawsuit filed by 23XI/Front Row Motorsports against them in 2025.

Looking back on this now, Earnhardt added, “The charter values have continued to grow. Now they're permanent. Yeah, you look at those situations, you're like, 'What an idiot we are now"

While Kelley Earnhardt has acknowledged that JR Motorsports underestimated the long-term values of the charter, she believes that NASCAR needs to strengthen its financial model for team owners. She said, 

"And you know it's not sticking ball sport there yet, but it's there. I still think in the long run for all of that to be really valuable, the business model has to catch up. I don't see the value to the charters continuing to increase if you ultimately can't get the P&L right and you can't maximize that opportunity."

While the Dale Jr co-owned team has made its appearance in the 2025 and 2026 Daytona 500 with Justin Allgaier, the organisation is yet to make a full-time commitment. Only time will tell if JR Motorsports will make the lead. 

Kelley Earnhardt explains what drives JR Motorsports to keep going

The Earnhardt siblings have grown JR Motorsports into one of the biggest teams in the NASCAR O’Reilly series. However, during a recent chat with JGR’s Heather Gibbs, Kelley Earnhardt revealed the main philosophy of the team. 

"Junior Motorsports doesn't do this to make money. We started our team because of the legacy of our family and our passion for racing. From the very first days, if we were able to just stay on the line of slightly profitable or not losing too much, that was good enough for us." (via Dirty Mo Media on X)

Although JR Motorsports has become one of the premier teams in O’Reilly, their main goal over the years has remained the same, and that is to preserve the family legacy. 

Read more at the RFK Racing Digest!

Written by

Chionia Libania Colaco

Edited by

Siddharth Shirwadkar