Why are NASCAR teams swapping charters?

When in doubt, always follow the money

It's part of a complicated NASCAR system designed to encourage performance while also allowing teams to project revenues for a season. At the start of 2016, NASCAR issued 36 charters, giving those 36 cars a guaranteed spot in each race and a guaranteed base amount of revenue for the season. That left four spots available to "open" cars, whose base amount of participation revenue is less than 35 percent of that of charter teams.

Teams can lease out their charter for only one year over a five-year span and then must either run it or sell it. A portion of the revenue distributed to a charter team is based on the performance of that car the last three years; plus any car among the three worst charters for three consecutive years can have its charter pulled by NASCAR.

The move for Go FAS Racing means it will have slightly more guaranteed money next season because the RPM #44 team's past three-year history is better than Go FAS Racing's #32 team.

It also should make the original #32 charter more valuable for 2018 in two ways — the Wood Brothers should finish higher in the owner standings (it was 21st in the 2016 team standings) and therefore would increase its 2018 guaranteed revenue; and it should eliminate a chance the charter could get revoked following the 2018 season because it most likely won't be among the three worst charter teams for three consecutive years. ESPN.com