By Jerry Jordan, Editor
Brad Keselowski finally has his freedom to seek future employment as a driver and team owner following the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season, as his time at RFK Racing will come to a close.
RFK Racing announced Saturday morning that Keselowski, the 2012 Cup Series champion, would become a passive investor in the team, ending his roles in governance and competition five years after he arrived. Keselowski believed RFK would be his forever home but change is coming. What the team statement did not say was that until roughly 60 minutes before a press conference Keselowski held at Martinsville Speedway, he was not free to race for anyone else in 2027.
Keselowski told media members that a verbal agreement was reached that morning, one he expects to become a written agreement that releases him to drive in the Cup Series in 2027. He does not know where he will end up or if he will have a car to drive but although nothing is 100 percent, it’s likely he won’t be at RFK.
“Racing in the 2027 season is still not a guarantee for me, although it became a lot clearer,” Keselowski said. “To not be able to race, though, would be devastating to me. This is my life. This is what I love to do.”
A Forever Home That Wasn’t
Keselowski joined RFK in 2022 as a driver and co-owner, and the plan was never supposed to end like this.
“I joined with the idea that it would be my forever home,” Keselowski said. “That would be where I finished my career, transcend into management and ownership for the rest of my professional career in life. That was really where my heart was and it didn’t play out the way that we hoped it would.”
His contract ran through the end of this season, and negotiations on an extension began about 11 months ago, following the 2025 season. Keselowski wanted to keep driving and keep his role in the competition group. His partners, he said, saw it differently, and the talks reached what he called a strong impasse. He described the split as a difference of opinion rather than an adversarial fight, and he confirmed he tried to solve it by buying the team outright.
“I made a very serious offer to purchase RFK,” Keselowski said. “I can’t go into the specifics of what it was.”
Three Steps and a Ticking Clock
Keselowski laid out three action steps in front of him. Now that he has the release in hand, he can meaningfully engage the Cup Series opportunities and return the calls that he says have been hitting his cell phone. He can also line up any media and marketing partners a deal will require. And he can unwind his ownership.
“I will begin the process of selling my 20 percent of RFK equity so I will have a full release for the rest of my career to do what I want,” Keselowski said. “That’s what’s in front of me right now.”
The problem is the calendar. Most of the 2027 grid is set and Keselowski knows a deal could drag into the new year. He allowed that a scenario could develop as late as February of 2027 and he framed Saturday’s press conference as the starting gun rather than the finish.
“I know that I have a lot of work to do to get a deal done for 2027, given that it’s so late in the year to land a ride,” Keselowski said. “This is me signaling to the industry the three action steps that I have and seeing what the industry says back to me.”
A team owner told Kickin’ the Tires that they had spoken with Keselowski but there were no deals or talks of putting something in place at that time.
The Partners Stay Behind
The second step may be the hardest. Sponsorship drives every deal in the garage, and Keselowski starts his search with none of the partners he helped bring to RFK. They are staying.
“I have a very specific agreement with RFK that although I was instrumental in bringing partners to the team, once they were with the team, they are now a team asset and will be so,” Keselowski said. “I have in my agreement that I won’t take any of the partners with me.”
What he can sell to a new team or a new sponsor is his record of building value at RFK. He said he believes he can find new partners for the future, even if it isn’t an easy task.
“In the five years I was there, the team doubled in value and doubled in sponsorship,” Keselowski said. “I don’t think that was a coincidence. I don’t think that just happened. I’d like to think that I was a big part of that and I’d like to think that I’ll bring that same opportunity to the next team I go to.”
Everything Is on the Table
Asked whether the release lets him drive for any Cup team and any manufacturer, current or incoming, Keselowski answered with a single word: “Yes.”
That includes the manufacturer that took him to his 2012 championship. Keselowski was Dodge’s last Cup Series champion and with Dodge and Ram returning to the sport, he was asked about helping build that program.
“I have not had a meaningful discussion with Dodge or Ram,” Keselowski said. “I’m certainly very open-minded to it, alongside all of the OEMs. I haven’t given up on a relationship with Ford in the future as well, along with the other two OEMs of Chevrolet and Toyota. Everything is on the table right now for me.”
Ownership is not a prerequisite for his next deal, Keselowski said, though he values it. A return to the Truck Series as a team owner is in play but is neither his first plan nor his fallback plan and he noted he still has everything needed to field a truck team. Even a limited return to RFK is not ruled out from his side, including the Clash and the Daytona 500, two events he is eligible for and, in the case of the 500, has never won.
“From my perspective, no door is closed,” Keselowski said. “I want to contend for wins. I want to be a part of contending for wins as a driver, an owner, an operator, a manager, all of the above. I’m certainly not ready to retire.”
For the first time in five years, the next move belongs to Keselowski alone and he said he knows it.
“I feel like I control my own destiny, and there’s a lot of power in that, for good or bad,” Keselowski said. “I now have the ball and if I fumble it, it’s on me and if I score with it, it’s on me but I have the ball.”