Brad Keselowski watched as one of his drivers, driving the No. 60 Ford, took the checkered flag at Bowman Gray Stadium this past February. For a moment, Ryan Preece wasn’t a leased driver, just a winner who now joined the elite company of Jeff Gordon and Denny Hamlin as the only driver to win The Clash before ever scoring a Cup Series point victory. But the reality is- the car Preece was driving didn’t belong to them. And the arrangement keeping him there is already moving toward an expiration date. Something Keselowski wants to change, no matter the cost.

That tension didn’t happen overnight. In September 2025, Rick Ware Racing (RWR) and Legacy Motor Club (LMC) reached a confidential settlement that secured LMC’s path toward a third charter for 2027. LMC had originally sued RWR in April 2025, claiming they had a deal for 2026; RWR pushed back, insisting the deal was for 2027. The quiet settlement in September ended the courtroom battle but set a ticking clock for RFK Racing.

RFK has been leasing that specific RWR charter for Preece’s No. 60 entry. Once that charter transfers to LMC in 2027, RFK will be homeless. Speaking recently to SiriusXM, Keselowski was blunt about the lack of options in a frozen market and the cost to even get one. 

“As it stands today, there are no charters that I’m aware of that are for sale. If there were, we would certainly talk to everybody that we think could potentially sell one and that we know is interested. We will have to see; it still may. We don’t need a charter till February of 2027,” Keselowski admitted. “That said, we really need a charter; we know that.” And then he went on to actually break down the costs of how expensive it would be to get one. 

After 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports settled their lawsuit with NASCAR, it was suggested that the price of the charters in NASCAR is going to shoot up to nearly $80-100 M. And Keselowski laid out the math in plain terms.

“A NASCAR charter is generally worth about $4-10 million in revenue. There’s a ranking system for them. The more the charter has performed over the years, the more it brings in. It’s a pretty safe assumption that the ones at the top are not going to ever be for sale. That’s Roger Penske, Rick Hendrick, and Joe Gibbs. And the ones further to the bottoms are for sale.

“So if you just apply simple sports math and say 20 times multiple on the charter that has a revenue of 4-5 million. Then you are looking at the $80 million number. That said, not one today has traded for anywhere near that. The last one to trade or sell was about in the $40 million range. That’s a long-winded way of saying it’s going to be about $40-80 million most likely.”

The simple sports math that he is talking about is related to the evaluation of franchises or, in NASCAR’s case, charters. Brad Keselowski explained that, unlike major businesses whose evaluations during a sale are based on the profits they generate, a sports franchise is evaluated on the basis of its revenue.

For context, the RWR-LMC charter that sparked all this legal drama reportedly had a sale price of $45 million on the table, which lands squarely in the range Keselowski used.

So what happens to RFK and Preece?

Ryan Preece has been one of the most quietly consistent drivers in the field, with two top 10s to his name and multiple top-15 finishes. Moreover, he is sitting in P13 in the standings, and RFK Racing has been quite good on the intermediate tracks this year.

Back in Darlington this year, RFK Racing was taking up the top three spots at one point and eyeing a potential victory. So losing a charter the next year could be disastrous for both Preece and Brad Keselowski. Preece will be shut out of the Cup Series since the other drivers have already secured a seat at one of the teams.

As for RFK Racing, they will fall behind once again with the lack of data from their third car. It will also affect Ford negatively since they are running a small program in the Cup Series. So even though there is time until the next season starts, the preparations are already underway.

That said, $40-80 M is a huge sum even for a lower team’s charter. It shows how far the sport has come after the lawsuit settlement, benefiting the team owners. For the same reason, holding a charter in the Cup Series has become much more important for even the backmarker teams.