RFK Racing might be under immense pressure due to the growing Charter woes and the difficult situation its #60 operation has faced more recently. Despite the Charter’s legal involvement with Legacy Motor Club and the challenges they have faced so far, team president Chip Bowers is determined to continue operating unfazed in 2027.

“We have tremendous momentum as an organization. We have great backing, our ownership group from Jack Roush, to Fenway Sports Group, to Brad, all committed years ago to start a third team.” This seems like a huge comment from Bowers, especially considering the feeble situation their #60 charter was in earlier. It has been leased from Rick Ware Racing, and the team was also in a business deal with Legacy Motor Club, which faced massive legal issues, including the leased charter.

LMC filed a lawsuit, alleging RWR had backed out of the sale of its charter to them. The issue was later settled, but the case was rather interesting. Legacy believed that the deal was for the #60 team’s charter, which is on lease. However, RWR was instead considering selling its only other charter, which would have left the team without a car for its Cup operation. The lawsuit ended up with a settlement, however, and the #60 still belongs to RWR, leased to RFK Racing. Despite all of these issues and the feeble Charter market, the team is still dedicated to running it full-time in the upcoming season as well.

“We’re not going to go backwards as an organization. We will run three cars; that’s unequivocally our focus moving forward. 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,” Bowers added, while speaking with Jeff Gluck on the Gluck Cast podcast.

The team also pursued acquiring a fourth charter, but that didn’t work out. Co-owner Brad Keselowski had revealed that no charters were available for sale at the time, and the team couldn’t proceed with the purchase. This happened at the same time as Ryan Preece’s drive, the #60, was under a massive question mark, which it still does.

However, Chip Bowers’ dedication to keeping the third Charter seems strong, especially given the performance the entire team has been delivering. The Chase format has worked well for them, as all three full-time drivers are currently in the top 16, which would put them in the championship Chase. So, despite the overall lack of wins, the team is in a much better position compared to the earlier seasons.

But Ryan Preece has found himself in an unstable position, sitting on the terminator line in 16th place in the championship table. Yet, he has a positive outlook for the season.

Ryan Preece is holding championship hopes despite his Charters’ odd situation

The 25-point penalty from the incident during the Texas weekend already put Preece in a difficult situation. Moreover, he is performing the worst of the three full-time drivers on the team, despite overall improvement. Yet, he has strong faith in the team and in the performance his Ford has been delivering so far this season, and hopes for a strong finish.

“We’re going on offense,” he told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio earlier. “I want to keep climbing our way up and, you know, I feel like our RFK Ford Mustang Dark Horses have speed. We show that at points in times, it’s just trying to put the entire recipe together for the entire race. So, definitely feel like our group has been getting stronger, and we have a lot of potential.”

So far, out of the 13 point-scoring races in the season, Preece has managed to finish within the top 20 in 11 of them. He has been more consistent than ever in his entire career, especially compared to last season. And although he sits on the edge of being eliminated or qualifying for the Chase, the pace he has shown already makes him a strong contender for the team to continue with next season.

It seems quite apparent why RFK Racing would want to invest so much just to keep the #60 Charter. Preece has delivered strong results, and this contribution, paired with the financing they receive from the Fenway Group and Keselowski as co-owners alone, is enough to maintain the books. So, although they might not be able to lock in a fourth charter anytime soon, Bowers seems to have made it very clear that they would be running with three next year.