A reduction of the weekly fields to 40 cars from the current 43 and a guaranteed starting spot for all races this season are just some of the many changes NASCAR is implementing with a new charter system designed to give owners a more secure financial position in the sport.
NASCAR announced Tuesday that 36 cars — called charters, or car franchises — will be guaranteed a spot in every race regardless of qualifying times. The four non-chartered race teams will compete for the final entires during qualifying with the rest of the 36 charters to set the starting lineup each race weekend.