When Ryan Preece arrived at RFK Racing ahead of the 2025 season, he was the last of four Stewart-Haas Racing drivers to find a new home after that organization’s sudden closure. He came in without a Cup Series win to his name across 187 starts and without a playoff appearance in five full-time seasons. And the No. 60 Ford he climbed into was running on a leased charter, after a one-year arrangement with Rick Ware Racing that gave Preece a full-time seat but no guaranteed future.

Speaking about the same, the No. 60 driver did not hold back. “I want to stay at RFK. I really do. I really like where I’m at. I worked really hard to be with an organization that is giving me the tools and the people that I work with to produce results and build on something,” Preece said.

His words land with weight because Preece’s seat is only secure for the 2026 season. And as Keselowski confirmed, there are no charters available for purchase: “As it stands today, there’s no charters that I’m aware of that are for sale. If there was, we’ve certainly talked to everybody that we think could potentially sell one, and they know our interest. We’ll have to see.”

What makes things worse is how much optimism Preece has collected recently. In 2025, Preece had three top-five finishes, 14 top-10s, and a sharp 15.7 average finish, which helped establish the No. 60 team as one of the breakout performers of its first full-time season. His previous best average finish came in 2023, a 20.8 in his first of two seasons with the now-defunct Stewart-Haas Racing.

Preece also won the 2026 Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium, and in the nine races since the Daytona 500, has quietly racked up an average finish of 12.6.

Preece explained the transformation himself:

“Winning’s winning. It doesn’t matter if it’s a points race or a non-points race. When you win, it’s the same emotion. It shows the potential in our No. 60 group at RFK. 2026 has been a year of consistency, and I feel like the sky is the limit. The communication and team chemistry are there, and we’re going to keep pushing.”

And now his stance has changed to “We have until February to figure that out but hopefully sooner than later.”

That tension had been building for a while. Rick Ware Racing (RWR) said it settled a dispute quietly in September 2025 under a confidential agreement that paved the way for Legacy Motor Club to secure a third charter in 2027. The conflict had begun months earlier in April, when LMC filed suit claiming a 2026 agreement was in place—a claim RWR disputed, arguing the deal was always meant for 2027. The settlement brought an end to the legal battle but also effectively put RFK Racing on notice with a deadline looming.

So, losing the charter could mean Preece loses his place in the Cup series since the other drivers have already secured theirs. As for RFK Racing, they’ll be behind again with the lack of data from their third car. It will also hurt Ford, which is running a small program in the Cup Series. 

Furthermore, after the lawsuit between 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports was settled with NASCAR, it has been suggested that the price of the charters in NASCAR is going to shoot up to almost $80-100 M. Keselowski explained the math in layman’s 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 basic sports math he’s talking about deals with the evaluation of franchises or, in NASCAR’s case, charters. When big companies are sold, the evaluation is based on the profit they make, but a sports franchise is evaluated based on revenue, as Keselowski explained.

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

The NASCAR Charter Hunt That Could Define RFK’s Future

The charter system was launched in 2016, and at that time, a charter cost roughly around $2 million. Today, that same thing goes for anywhere between $40 million and $80 million. Keselowski admitted this week that he is not aware of any charters on the market at this point. This has left RFK with very limited options and limited time as well.

The clearest opportunity that they had was the shutdown of Stewart-Haas Racing after 2024. Four charters hit the market at that moment. Front Row Motorsports paid $29.5 million for one, 23XI Racing bought another for $28 million, and Trackhouse took one for $26.5 million. Gene Haas held on to the fourth to start his own single-car Haas Factory Team. RFK missed out on the whole thing entirely.

Another possible route was JTG Daugherty Racing, which was rebranded as Hyak Motorsports in 2025.  Rumours have it that JTG would sell its charter to RFK. However, the team stayed in support of Ricky Stenhouse Jr., though RFK did walk away with their biggest sponsor, Kroger. With that, Hyak was left financially vulnerable, but still in possession of its charter.

The Kroger part of this whole situation is now quite central. The grocery giant did not sponsor one car—they came to RFK for all three drivers. Kroger uses Keselowski, Buescher, and Preece for 20-plus participating brands, including Red Baron and Allegra, for in-store marketing. NASCAR insiders suggest that the deal includes exit clauses specifically tied to the three-car setup. So if RFK is forced to downsize, Kroger has the leverage of reducing funding or even walking out.

To put things into perspective, with losing the third charter, RFK stands to lose more than just a car. The team’s strategy currently seems to be pretty straightforward: win and apply pressure. The 10-month lifeline has defined what RFK’s culture will be going forward in the 2026 season and the coming years. February 2027.