Image Reference: Zach Catanzareti via Wikipedia, CC BY 2.0
So there you have it, Live Fast Motorsports has chosen to sell their charter to Spire Motorsports ahead of next season today for a huge transaction fee of $40 million. Yes, that is the rate you wish to buy one right now following the previous highest charter purchase of $13 million almost two years ago when 23XI Racing expanded their 2nd full-time car off now-defunct small run team StarCom Racing. Other than that, Spire immediately used its third charter by loaning it off to Trackhouse Racing where they will be fielding a third car together under Spire’s banner (Number TBD) alongside Corey LaJoie in the No.7 & Ty Dillon or Carson Hocevar in the No.77 for reigning Truck Series Champion Zane Smith, who will be officially joining them on a multi-year contract from Front Row Motorsports starting next season. And on Live Fast’s side, well, it looks they will continue Cup racing going forward on a part-time basis as an open-cup team. So expect them to see BJ McLeod drive his own car again at Superspeedways where he scored some Top 10s every now and then for the odd occasion or two every year.
Gotta say it’s a huge breakthrough step for all parties involved as we hope to finally see the realisation of all Cup cars being competitive on the race track every weekend. Some people like BJ McLeod with his cult personality status and the way he runs on a shoestring budget alongside wife Jessica as well as Matt Tifft & Joe Falk as we have nothing against them. However, he can’t keep on running at the back all the time where the results haven’t been there compared to other small run teams & he has made the right call today in selling up the charter to Spire at the highest price tag possible. Let’s hope he can invest some of that charter money towards improving his Xfinity Series operation as we wish them good luck.
Image Reference: Zach Catanzareti via Wikipedia, CC BY 2.0
Meanwhile, Spire is no stranger of making investments where they’ve been a major player off the track including this activity today. Although it’s good to see the No.7 improve over the last 1-2 years thanks to Corey LaJoie alongside his own sponsorship package, but let’s hope the involvement of Gainbridge as a sponsor and maybe Andretti being involved at some point would see them make some massive steps on-track as a three-car team thanks to Trackhouse & Zane Smith. We have to wait and see though what the No.77 team’s driver status might be next season with Ty Dillon most likely to be replaced by another young Trucks star in Carson Hocevar from Niece Motorsports, who has also been filling-in the No.42 Chevy Camaro lately for Legacy Motor Club at Cup level following the unexpected dismissal of Noah Gragson over a month ago.
What else could we say after next year, Trackhouse would be looking at fielding three full-time cars at some point as you can only lease one every few years unless they can share half of the stake with Spire. It’s too early to tell once Zane Smith is eventually going to be integrated into Trackhouse’s HQ and race equipment after 2024, but then you got New Zealand’s Shane Van Gisbergen from Supercars where he will racing for them under a developmental year to get more ovals experience next season. Maybe Trackhouse can keep on churning more decent performances from there with more money to be earned before making the full-time charter purchase from Spire that would see them expand to three cars while Spire reduces back to two. And on the driver change? It looks like one might be going out and that would be Daniel Suarez in the No.99, we have nothing against him but the team would might wanna go into a different direction with all three drivers driving for them based on their on-track reputation & merit rather than letting a driver just stump up with sponsorship to them like Suarez.
Next up, keep a close eye on the Stewart-Haas situation who may be planning to sell up a charter or two while downsizing the number or full-time teams depending if Aric Almriola is gonna stay for another year in the No.10 car or retire this time for good as well as Ryan Preece’s performances in the No.41 machine next season. If so, expect Richard Childress Racing as well as lot other two-car teams to try and get if off them at a hefty price tag of $50 million each that totals $100 million for two.
.jpg){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}