MARTINSVILLE, Va. — RFK Racing announced Saturday morning that the organization has reached the next stage of its severance from driver and co-owner Brad Keselowski, freeing him to continue his driving career elsewhere and concluding his ownership ties.
News of their mutual agreement landed Saturday morning at Martinsville Speedway, site of Sunday’s Xfinity 500 (2 p.m. ET, NBC, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), the next-to-last race of the NASCAR Cup Series season. The RFK statement also noted that Keselowski will continue as a “passive investor” with the team, bringing his roles in the competition department and governing board to an end.
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“We thank Brad for his many contributions to RFK Racing and wish him the best of luck with the remainder of his racing career,” the RFK statement concluded.
Keselowski, a two-time Martinsville winner, offered the first substantial update in nearly four weeks regarding his split from RFK Racing and his direction for the 2027 season during a Saturday morning availability, scheduled just a half-hour after the team’s announcement. He acknowledged that the recently struck agreement had swayed the potential tenor of his news conference, and he showed crossed-out sections in his prepared remarks as he stepped down from the Press Pass desk after a wide-ranging 35-minute media session.
Both Keselowski and RFK president Chip Bowers had addressed the parting-of-ways at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, four days after the team’s Sept. 29 announcement that the 42-year-old driver would leave the team’s No. 6 Ford at season’s end. Bowers indicated Keselowski had reached the end of a five-year driving contract, and that the organization was ready for him to turn his primary focus toward competition leadership at RFK. Bowers also said Keselowski intended to keep driving in 2027 and potentially beyond. The two parties differed on this matter, and apparently on several other topics in reporting from The Athletic that surfaced two weeks ago .
The former Cup Series champion (2012) confirmed news first reported by the Sports Business Journal that he had attempted to purchase RFK Racing outright, a bid that was rejected by the other ownership stakeholders — team founder Jack Roush and Fenway Sports Group. Keselowski has expressed interest in exploring team ownership elsewhere, saying in Vegas that “I still love the sport and want to be around long after my driving days are done.”
Keselowski missed out on The Chase presented by Mobil 1 postseason field this year, placing 18th at the end of the Cup Series’ regular season. The 2026 campaign has been an eventful one, marked by an offseason leg injury that kept him out of the preseason Clash exhibition and hobbled him with a walking cane in the season’s early stages, plus the departure of crew chief Jeremy Bullins, who will make the shift to Legacy Motor Club in 2027. His winless streak now stands at 93 races since he last prevailed at Darlington Raceway in the 2024 Goodyear 400, notching his only Cup victory under the RFK banner.
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Despite the uncertainty, Keselowski has shown signs of going out with a trend-bucking flourish. With teammates Chris Buescher and Ryan Preece joining in, Keselowski’s group implemented a rogue Stage 1 strategy last weekend at Talladega Superspeedway, countering the field’s fuel-saving gambit and turning the RFK trio into crowd darlings.
This story will be updated.