"The charter system is huge": RFK Racing president discusses challenges of adding third car in 2025

RFK Racing President Steve Newmark recently addressed rumors regarding the potential addition of a third charter to the team. He discussed the challenges the team has previously encountered in pursuing this goal.

Reports suggest that RFK Racing is aiming to expand its Cup Series presence by adding a third charter in the upcoming season with the signing of the new charter agreement. While the team is yet to confirm the signing officially, Newmark opened up about the challenges they faced earlier.

"And so the last few years, we've actually had some opportunities to expand," he told SiriusXM (at 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."

However, the team is now in a stronger position to pursue the addition of a third charter. With increased sponsorship and improved race results, RFK Racing has the financial capacity to support this expansion, a sentiment echoed by Newmark.

"But we had reached that point where we were running up front consistently and had the ability to win every weekend," he said. "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."

"And the charter system is one of them. I mean, that's a huge piece that you need to understand before you can make that commitment," he added.

Brad Keselowski also recently hinted at a potential announcement that RFK Racing might make in the coming month.

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RFK Racing co-owner Brad Keselowski on potential future announcement by the team

Brad Keselowski, who joined RFK Racing as a driver and co-owner in 2022, talked about an announcement that could be made next month. Speaking to The Athletic, the 40-year-old indicated that he did not have any significant announcements regarding the team or the third charter acquisition at the time of the interview. However, he suggested that there might be news on the horizon.

"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. "But nothing publicly that I’m ready to talk about."

Ryan Preece has been rumored to be joining RFK Racing as the driver of their potential third charter. When NASCAR journalist Bob Pockrass asked Keselowski about these rumors, the latter declined to provide a direct answer, stating, "Coming soon."

"Not today Bob! Coming soon."

Preece currently remains the only SHR driver who has not signed with a team for the 2025 season. His teammates found a permanent seat rather quickly after SHR announced its closure at the end of the current season.