Penske Entertainment, the executive leadership arm that owns and oversees the NTT IndyCar Series, is expected to make a formal presentation of its final charter system structure to its independent team owners in the days leading up to the May 26 Indianapolis 500.
Chronicled in heavy detail in recent months, the two significant questions waiting to be resolved from RACER’s last update have received answers.
A Penske Entertainment spokesperson, who asked to not be directly quoted, said that the first item involving whether the series’ 10 teams will be required to pay for each charter has resulted in a no, which should please the paddock.
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The first attempt to push through IndyCar’s charter system towards the end of 2023 was met with an immediate rejection by team owners when Penske Entertainment attempted to take more than $20 million from its paddock by charging for the charters.
The range of owners who spoke to RACER after the ill-fated pitch raised no issues with the overall structure of the franchise system, barring the attempt to further profit off of the series’ participants, which led to the charter’s failure.
Although the Penske Entertainment representative said nothing should be considered final until the upcoming charter presentation is made, they did say the current plan is for the 25 charters to come at no cost.
The other key item that was positioned as a 50-50 topic in the last update involved providing guaranteed starting positions for the 25 charter entries at the Indianapolis 500. The representative said Penske Entertainment has backed away from the Indy 500 guarantees, which was almost universally panned by the series’ fans.
Providing guaranteed starting spots for the 25 at the majority of the other races, however, is expected to be ratified.