Start and Park

Start and Park is a controversial racing strategy, primarily used in NASCAR, where a team enters a race but intentionally withdraws after completing only a few laps in order to collect prize money while avoiding the high costs of running the full race distance.

The practice works because NASCAR and similar racing series pay prize money to all entered teams based on their finishing position, even if they don't complete the race. By starting the race and running the minimum required laps, underfunded teams could earn thousands of dollars in prize money without spending money on expensive items like multiple sets of tires, fuel for an entire race, or a full pit crew. The driver would typically pull off the track after a handful of laps, often claiming a mechanical problem as the reason for the early exit.

Start and Park teams were usually easy to spot. They often ran older car bodies, had little or no sponsor logos on their vehicles, and consistently finished at the back of the field. These operations became particularly common from the late 1990s through the mid-2010s when the gap between race costs and prize money made the strategy financially viable. In 2012 alone, start and park teams collectively earned approximately $17 million using this approach.

Some teams used start and park as a survival strategy, using the guaranteed income to fund a more competitive car in the same series or to support racing efforts in other competitions. In other cases, well-funded teams occasionally employed the strategy to test or break in new engines before installing them in their primary race cars. Notable participants in the start and park practice included Johnny Chapman and MSRP Motorsports during the late 2000s.

The strategy drew significant criticism from fans, competitors, and racing officials. Critics argued that start and park entries took valuable starting positions away from teams that genuinely wanted to race the full distance. In racing series where the field size is limited, this meant legitimate competitors sometimes couldn't participate because start and park teams filled the grid.

NASCAR eventually took action to discourage the practice. The sanctioning body reduced prize money for the lowest finishing positions, making start and park less profitable. More significantly, NASCAR introduced the charter system in the Cup Series in 2016, which requires chartered teams to compete in every race. The charter system also reduced payouts for teams finishing between 36th and 40th place, further diminishing the financial incentive.

These changes have largely eliminated start and park from NASCAR's top series. However, the practice continued to appear occasionally in the Xfinity Series and Camping World Truck Series as recently as late 2021, where the financial structure still made it viable for some underfunded operations.