May 23, 2026; Concord, North Carolina, USA; Roush Fenway Keselowski driver Ryan Preece (60) during qualifying at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Mandatory Credit: Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images

Jun 28, 2026, 3:11 PM CUT

RFK president lays out plan to dodge NASCAR’s $100M roadblock

The Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing team continues to find a charter for the upcoming 2027 season. And with the charter values continuing to soar the RFK president Chip Bowers has a different plan to overcome the hurdle.

At the moment, RFK has two permanent charters, one of which is the No. 6 driven by co-owner Brad Keselowski and the other is the No. 17 driven by Chris Buescher. The charter driven by Ryan Preece is currently on lease from RWR but will go back to Legacy Motor Club at the end of the 2026 season. This has left RKF on the hunt for a new charter.

However, during his recent appearance on the Stacking Pennies Performance, Bowers expressed his desire to run an open car instead.

"And so when I look at the third charter, I go, 'Look, we want to buy a charter or lease a charter.' Those are our top two options. We will run open because I know in my heart that we're going to do it better than anyone else has ever done it. And I get the luxury of doing it with three really good drivers," Bowers said on the podcast.

TALLADEGA, AL - APRIL 26: Ryan Preece 60 RFK Racing BuildSubmarines.com Ford leads Ty Dillon 10 Kaulig Racing Grizzly Nicotine Pouches Chevrolet and Brad Keselowski 6 RFK Racing Castrol Ford during the running of the NASCAR, Motorsport, USA Cup Series Jack Links 500 on April 26, 2026, at Talladega Superspeedway in Talladega AL. Photo by Jeffrey Vest/Icon Sportswire AUTO: APR 26 NASCAR Cup Series Jack Links 500 EDITORIAL USE ONLY Icon2604261225

Bowers further expressed a strong confidence in the team's ability to qualify, stressing that it is not a question of ‘if’ but the team will deliver.

"So, when you think about can you qualify? I go, 'What do you mean, can we?' I mean, we will. I mean, that's not even up for discussion. And then everybody's going to be happy, and no one's at risk. And so that's how we have to look at it."

As of now, Chris Buescher (7th) and Ryan Preece (16th) are both making the cutoff, with the No. 60 right on the edge. Brad Keselowski is in 19th, losing two positions from the San Diego race.

Coming back to charters, back in May, the RFK co-owner Brad Keselowski revealed the soaring prices of the NASCAR Cup charter, which now ranges between $80 million and $100 million.

However, back in May, Keselowski had spoken to SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, saying that there were anyway no charters for sale at the time and that the team is looking forward to buying one if available.

This leaves the team without any other option to run an open charter if they want to run three cars.

Chip Bowers on team's mindset with the open charter idea

While in an interview with Jeff Gluck on his Gluckcast podcast, Chip Bowers revealed that the team is on board with the idea of running an open charter.

“We want to purchase a charter. We see great value in the charters, both short and long term. So that’s our number one priority. Short of being able to access one or acquire one, we’ll run open, right? And that’s a decision we’ve already made as an organization. We’ve shared that with our staff.”

For now, it seems that the RFK team is firm about running a three-car team in the NASCAR Cup series for the upcoming 2027 season and does not want to scale down.

Written by

Chionia Libania Colaco