IndyCar's long-awaited charter system has been officially rubber-stamped from 2025 onwards, limiting teams to three 'guaranteed' entries but preserving bumping for the Indianapolis 500.
IndyCar had followed on from NASCAR's example (the stock car racing association is currently in the middle of its own, increasingly difficult and acrimonious charter renegotiation) in pursuing franchised entries, and now heads into next year with the system finally firmed up.
"I want to extend my sincere appreciation to our team owners for their collaboration and ideation throughout this process," said Mark Miles, CEO of IndyCar's parent company Penske Entertainment.
"Ultimately, we're pleased to have a system in place that provides greater value for our ownership and the entries they field.”
IndyCar's 10 established teams have all been extended chartered entries. The series will have an 11th full-season team next year, thanks to the arrival of European junior single-seater giant Prema, which will for now remain outside of the system.
2025 chartered teams
brackets denotes how many full-season entries they had in 2024
AJ Foyt Enterprises - 2 (2)
Andretti Global - 3 (3)
Arrow McLaren - 3 (3)
Chip Ganassi Racing - 3 (5)
Dale Coyne Racing - 2 (2)
Ed Carpenter Racing - 2 (2)
Juncos Hollinger Racing - 2 (2)
Meyer Shank Racing - 2 (2)
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing - 3 (3)
Team Penske - 3 (3)
A chartered entry will be guaranteed a place on the starting grid at 16 of IndyCar's 17 races next year.
Guaranteed Indy 500 entries were part of discussions, too, but the threat of regular-season cars dropping out of the iconic event's 33-car field in qualifying battle against the Indy 500's usual deluge of one-off entries will remain, which will no doubt prove popular to fans.
It isn't clear, meanwhile, how likely there are to be non-qualifiers at most other races.
A non-Indy 500 car limit of 27 has been reported by RACER, which corresponds with last year's amount of total full-season entries and was also the number of cars at the start in all but two events - the aforementioned 33-car Indy 500 and the 28-car Portland race, where Rahal Letterman Lanigan ran a fourth entry for Juri Vips.
Prema's new two-car entry, in that regard, is currently offset by Ganassi scaling down to three cars from five.
A charter will also be necessary for participation in the Leaders' Circle programme, which will continue to offer payments of $1million to the best 22 eligible entries - meaning that Prema and three of its rival teams' chartered entries will not be part of that particular contest.
"The charter agreement, to me, is the single-most important piece for the future of the series," said Meyer Shank Racing boss Mike Shank.
“When you look back in the modern era of IndyCar racing, you will look at a few important moments - the first being the unification of the sport [between IRL and Champ Car], the next being Roger Penske buying the IndyCar series and IMS [Indianapolis Motor Speedway], and I truly believe the third will be the charter system," said Chip Ganassi.
The charters as they have been agreed are currently "committed" through 2031, though teams will naturally be able to buy or sell them in that period.
