Brad Keselowski had a media availability at the NASCAR Production Studios, where he spoke with beat reporters about a wide-array of topics. In the discussion, Keselowski, a co-owner of the RFK Racing team, indicated that his race team is still very interested in expansion in the future, as he has been very open about since moving to the team as a driver/co-owner in 2022.
Keselowski says while the team has drivers in mind to add to his organization in the NASCAR Cup Series if it were to expand past the current two-car full-time operation, which fields a third part-time entry, there are obstacles that the team must hurdle to make it a reality.
“Yeah, we would need the right kind of storm to brew with Charter availability and partner availability,” Keselowski explained. “I think there’s some opportunities with some talent out there, but the other two pieces realistically have to come first.”
One of the major obstacles is additional Charters. And if a team is going to fork over a large sum of money for a Charter, the team is going to want to assure that Team Charters are a thing that exist within the NASCAR Cup Series past the 2024 season. While NASCAR has indicated openly in the media that they are a fan of the teams keeping Charters as it adds value to the teams within the sport, there have been mixed signals that have come from sources behind the scenes of the talks over the last year or so.
But it’s a moot point as the Race Team Alliance and NASCAR have yet to come to an official agreement for the 2025 season. NASCAR has it’s longterm media rights agreement in place, now, the entities within the sport are negotiating how to divvy up the funds. Keselowski is keeping tabs on how the negotations are going, but he admits that he is not the member of the RFK Racing team that is actively going into battle on the issue every day.
“I’ve got a pretty good feel for it,” Keselowski said of the negotations. “I can’t say I’m every day working on it. In fact, I can say the exact opposite. I’m not every day working on it, like [Steve Newmark] is.”
Keselowski added, “It’s an important conversation for the industry, and ultimately, we’ll end up in a good place, but we’re not there yet.”
While it’s been a very big storyline for fans, and media alike to keep an eye on, Keselowski says he is not too worried about the Charter Agreement negotations, as he feels a deal will undoubtedly be reached by the 2025 Daytona 500. It’s just a matter of when.
“I don’t know. Maybe I’m fighting bigger fires, but this is not at the top of my list of things to be concerned about,” Keselowski stated. “I think ultimately, we’ll get to Daytona next year, and this thing will be resolved by then. It doesn’t have to be resolved until then. Naturally, everyone wants to come to a deal of whatever they think is fair. Fair, in this case, is probably going to be where both sides are unhappy, we haven’t reached that yet.”
The elephant in the room between the teams and NASCAR continues to grow with each passing week that a deal isn’t signed, but hearing Keselowski assure that he isn’t too worried about it does help ease the worry that a deal may not come together.
