NASCAR Rumors: Brad Keselowski's RFK won't run third team as 'open' car amid charter pursuit

According to the rumors, the RFK Racing team, co-owned by Brad Keselowski, won’t reportedly run an open car for its rumored third full-time team amid the ongoing charter negotiations.

According to a report by The Athletic, RFK Racing is targeting to secure a charter for its third team to prevent running an open car. This would save the team “extra millions of dollars,” as operating an open car reportedly costs that much.

RFK Racing currently has two drivers on the grid, Brad Keselowski and Chris Buescher. Keselowski is competing in this year’s Cup Series Playoffs after earning a ticket to the postseason with a race win at the Goodyear 400 in Darlington.

While Keselowski doesn’t have an official word regarding the potential expansion, the 40-year-old Michigan native said the team could make an announcement in the following months.

“We don’t have any announcements that we’re ready to make, but hopefully we’ll have something to share with everybody here in the next month or so,” Keselowski said on Sept. 4. “But nothing publicly that I’m ready to talk about.” he added.

The report of adding a third team stemmed from RFK securing the Kroger sponsorship package following cutting ties with long-time partner JTG Daugherty Racing. A charter will guarantee the third team an entry to all 36 races and receive prize money.

The third spot is rumored to be filled by Ryan Preece, who will be exiting the outgoing Stewart-Haas Racing team at the end of the year. The team sees the potential in Preece, who they believe “has not reached his potential” yet.

“The team believes [Ryan Preece] has not reached his potential as a Cup driver and has never been with an organization on an upswing like RFK has been on since Keselowski joined on as co-owner in 2022,” The Athletic reports.

Ryan Preece could join the RFK Racing team - Source: Imagn

If RFK Racing secures a charter for a third team, the North Carolina-based outfit will return to fielding three cars after reducing its entries down to two since 2017.

---

RFK Racing President opened up about the challenges of adding a third team

RFK Racing President Steve Newmark talked about the challenges of expanding the driver lineup. The team previously attempted to do so but wasn’t able to make it official.

“And so the last few years, we've actually had some opportunities to expand," Newmark told SiriusXM [0:20]. "And we've declined at that time because we wanted to be cautious because I think that, you know, we've seen some lessons out there that if you expand too quickly, sometimes the growing pains can send you backwards.”

Newmark noted the increased sponsorships and on-track improvements encouraged him to expand the team.

“But we had reached that point where we were running up front consistently and had the ability to win every weekend," he said [0:54]. "And so we started exploring how we could expand to a third car. We've made progress to that. I'm very hopeful that we'll have a third car next year. But as with anything, there are lots of different pieces of the puzzle to put in place.

While we await further announcement, Buescher and playoff contender Keselowski prepare for a road course race at Watkins Glen scheduled on September 15.