Kelley Earnhardt on JRM’s hesitation with $30,000,000 investment in NASCAR Charters – “They're essentially worth nothing”

Kelley Earnhardt, who co-owns JR Motorsports with her brother, Dale Earnhardt Jr., has expressed significant concerns regarding the high cost of charters in NASCAR’s top-level series. Kelley Earnhardt believes that on a paper charter appears as an asset, but, in reality, running a Cup team is not a profitable business.

There has been speculation of JRM planning a charter purchase since Stewart-Haas Racing announced that they will shut down and will sell their four-car Cup charter at the end of this season.

However, Kelley Earnhardt’s concerns are rooted in the inherent risks and questionable long-term value of these charters. According to her, charter business is “worth nothing.”

In a recent conversation with former NASCAR driver Kenny Wallace about JRM’s hesitation with a $30 million investment in Cup charter, the chief executive officer of JR Motorsports, Kelley Earnhardt, said:

“They sit on your balance sheet as an appreciating asset nobody knows what to pay for them because the business model to running a Cup team is not a profitable business model.

"I can't tell you that my Cup team will make $2 million every year and there's a value in that I mean what everybody wants to be in business to make money. They're essentially worth nothing because this contract's about to expire that they're working on.”

She continued:

“My problem with it is that it's not about the value of the charter. I don't want to pay $30 million for something that I have no clue how to measure its worth. None. I don't want to pay $30 million for something, and then have to spend $20 million more to run my race team without any guarantee of making a profit.”

JRM competes in the Xfinity Series, eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series, CARS Tour, and NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series. The organization has dominated the Xfinity Series for quite some time and has four-car charters in the series.

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“We’re out of the charter business right now”: Kelley Earnhardt’s brother Dale Jr. on purchasing a Cup charter

During a recent interview with FOX Sports’ Bob Pockrass, Dale Earnhardt Jr. clarified that JRM is not among the teams in line to purchase a charter in the Cup Series from SHR. Earnhardt Jr. said (via FOX Sports):

“We’re out of the charter business right now. … The sale of a charter—I would call it a cycle, right? Well, we missed this last cycle.

"We’ll see what comes down the road. I’m almost feeling like that if I were to ever get involved in the Cup side, it would be like an investment — my personal monetary investment in something current.”

With the Earnhardt family involved in the NASCAR Cup Series, it will be interesting to see if JRM can ever have a team in the Series.