"The sport is very expensive" - Brad Keselowski explains why the charter negotiations are taking so long

Driver and co-owner of RFK Racing Brad Keselowski recently shared his take on why an agreement hasn't been reached in the charter negotiations. Keselowski was the guest on the latest episode of Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour podcast.

At one point in his conversation with Harvick, the #6 driver touched on several aspects of the charter negotiation system and the reality of NASCAR as a sport today.

"My point of view is that the sport is very expensive. We have a lot of inflation-related matters that are hitting NASCAR just as they are hitting everybody else. The cost to operate a team has never been more expensive," Keselowski said (at 15:50).

"The Next Gen car came in, and the car is a more expensive car. There's no way around it. It has to be because it's built by third parties, and those third parties have to make a profit to be in business. When the teams manufactured the majority of the car, they didn't do it for a profit, not the manufacturing aspect, at least. So, you have to cover that overhead of margins and inflation, which drove some of the cost of the sport," he added.

When asked by Harvick if he sees a road where the car is cheaper, Keselowski claimed there is no such future because "nothing gets cheaper."

For Keselowski, the current challenge they have in front of them isn't a cost challenge "for the most part."

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Brad Keselowski explains how inflated costs in NASCAR affect charter negotiations

Speaking further on this subject, Brad Keselowski explained how the rising costs in the Next Gen era are a factor in the charter negotiations. Keselowski claimed the teams are "just screaming" about huge deficits in their budgets to NASCAR.

"That puts the whole charter negotiation in this unique place where the teams are just trying to figure out how they are going to pay for things. The new TV market is changing almost every day, has put another wrench in that. The more we move off of broadcast and onto streaming services and all these other things, the harder it is to get the partners engaged the way we want to get them engaged," he said during the aforementioned podcast episode (at 17:50).

Keselowski claimed that comes at "a trade-off" because now with streaming services, there's more money.

According to Brad Keselowski, the conversation is mostly about creating a stable platform where well-managed teams don't lose money at the end of the day.

He added that NASCAR is doing "a lot of work" to help such teams and ultimately, the challenges of the negotiations boil down to teams trying to be well-managed and solvent. And right now, that's not the case in "too many instances."