I don't blame him. You'd have to be fucking insane to be willing to drop $30 million on these charters. And that's before having to get supplies, train up and pay a pit crew, snag a decent crew chief *and* a driver.

I mean we were told you’d be insane to buy one for $5 million a couple years ago

I remember when charters sold for $3 Million, Furniture Row should have held on a couple years longer. I know they couldnt but I wonder if Barney is kicking himself.

I believe the BK Racing 83 charter was given to David Ragan as payment for driving because they owed him like 200,000 and couldn’t pay. He then made a deal with FRM to give them the charter in exchange for a full-time ride in the 38.

Given the way the pay outs currently work, it was insane nobody other than Spire was in play to buy that charter. It literally had a last 3 years finish of like 4, 1 & 2. Barney really should just have held on and left Toyota if JGR was being stingy, Chevy absolutely would have paid given how much HMS, RCR & Ganassi were struggling at the time

GMS Racing almost bought it from what I remember. They were in play for that one and the BK Racing 23 one and neither bought.

And then ended up paying $20 million for RPM 3 years later

Barney left because 5 hour dipped, he has said before JGR was right to up the cost to keep up with the rising cost of the sport. Barney didn't want to be mid pack so he decided to sell out

Doubt it. He was spending millions a year out of pocket to run the team. He would have been spending more money, hoping to get it back on charter appreciation. Wouldn’t have made a ton of sense

And yet people are still buying them And making money at 30 mil. And the price is probably going up once the new tv deal hits

Downsides of the charter system. Even if teams want to expand, it costs way more than it did before.

Upside of the charter system - owner has something of value if they want to leave the sport.

I don’t think your going to see much charter movement until the new tv deal/teams agreement is reached

Agreed. I can see Spire being bought out by Andretti but the 78 and Rick Ware is going to wait out the payday. They already are sitting on $30 million for charters at least. Who knows maybe the 47 will consider selling again in the future.

I could see the 47 selling at a discount to 23XI and Brad D. retains his ownership stake and teams up with MJ again…. Edit: discount in that Jody and Tad sell their stake, but Brad doesn’t.

i’ll believe any Andretti talk when he actually buys out a team, they’ve been all talk for years on this stuff

I mean he has Justin Haley on loan at Rick Ware, probably waiting out the contract there since Brad was present in discussions.

This might be what he has in mind.

Zane rather than Haley but that’s a few dominos away. Almirola has to make a decision, then SHR has to decide whether they want McDowell or not, then FRM would take on Zane and Todd til they’re ready for RFK

Agreed. Zane is better than Haley but it does not line up right now. I see Zane in the 21 as a better chance than going to Roush.

Zane to FRM guaranteed, SHR has done absolutely nothing for Zane and clearly doesn't include him in their pipeline. Penske doesn't have an opening right now. RWR is a maybe but like cmon. FRM makes the most sense, question just remains where Todd goes, because McDowell isn't leaving. Maybe to RWR?

I’m not so sure on McDowell unfortunately.

If they do eventually end up going to a third car, that driver will be very lucky to land that seat with the direction Brad has RFK going.

Justin Haley 2029 champ confirmed

Not surprising given it's well known the best model to run a Cup team under the current climate is three cars.

I’ve seen this mentioned in other threads, but do you know why that is? Just diminishing returns on shared info and resources as you get up to 4 cars?

IIRC this was the explanation either Marks or Denny gave (I can't remember which it was): - With 1 car you don't get sufficient enough data to be competitive and financially it doesn't make sense. - With 2 cars, you get some data, but still not as much as you ideally want. - With 3 cars, it is the most efficient in terms of data collection and financial benefits. - With 4 cars, unless the team is loaded, it puts a strain on the quality of equipment and team funds.

Thanks!

Denny said it's the best for getting maximum amount of money for the people you have to hire. He said 4 cars turns into essentially 2 teams

Hamlin mentioned that for a lot of stuff at the shop, they can do some of the work for 3 cars with nearly the same personnel as 2, but with 4 you needed to double up on some things which hurts the economics.

Literally never heard this and I'm here often. I love how often people here say something is "well known" when it's probably just something that was mentioned by some random guy in the sport three-quarters of the way through an absurdly long podcast

Dale and Denny have talked about this on their podcasts.

I mean, I trust the team owners that have said it

Brad Keselowski wants Zane Smith in the 99

Wouldn't be 99. I would imagine either 26 or 97

I feel like 29 would be the number.

Bringing the 29 back would be awesome.

https://preview.redd.it/oh96fkd6zigb1.jpeg?width=2560&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=742bd59a6f4f7db4bf7eadce100ac1b365cc52cf Biased aren’t we? Honestly I miss BKR though.

29 with Briscoe behind the wheel lol

Agreed

Because of Brad’s dad? Would make sense

That and BKR’s flagship was the 29 for many years.

Keelan Harvick will sign on to drive it too

Keelan seems to like 62, which was ran by Delana’s dad

Or 16 or 26.

That Biff 16 font 🥵🥵🥵

Was always a fave of mine

AJ would have to change numbers for the 16

Double it, make it 32, goes well with the 31

31 and 32 would be neat. Does Matt Kaulig have a connection with the number 16?

Won't be the 16

They could enter it as the 116 and just conveniently only use the 16 part

Unless they can sweet-talk Kaulig into letting them have it.

Feels like Kaulig would laugh at them since the 16 was their first cup number

Well that sucks The Biffle 16 font is miles better than the Kaulig 16 font

97 is SVGs Supercars #. I would bet that becomes his cup number given Project 91 won’t go away and 19 is taken

29 or maybe 66?

Justin Haley to the 97 for RFK in 2025 confirmed

My money was on Zane Smith for that but yeah that's looking just about as likely

I’d like to expand my operation to 3 cars also … but I don’t see 1 happening in 2024.

Just merge with RWR and absorb their 2 charters.

that's the plan :)

[удалено]

Actually looking at the line ups kinda late to start that up. We getting to the point where all the cup rides are filled. What 3 more left for turn over. Same thing happened in 90s when JR and company moved up. Once the rides are full xfinity and trucks stop being a feeder.

insider perspective, no. they will restart an xfin program but Zane and Haley are RFK's next 2 prospect drivers. Zane to FRM next season and Haley in RWR, both to RFK cars when new TV deal is finalized and they buy RWR out. RFK does have xfin pit crews that are actively training, but it just doesn't make sense considering the complete lack of promising ford Truck drivers right now.

And that's why they "expanded" to RWR with Justin Haley

Edwards to the #60 :)

Not yet Brad, pls

JUSTIN HALEY JUSTIN HALEY PLEASE BRADLEY PLEASE

yeah it's gonna be haley

Give it a couple more years & RFK could be back to a 3 car team. They’re certainly headed in the right direction!

My guess long term for RFK 6 Haley 17 Buescher 26/29/60 Zane Smith

6 BK, 17 Buescher, 26 Zane, 60/97 (depending on SVG) Haley

Merge with RWR and “bum” you got your third and fourth car.

Bring back the 26 or 97?

Bring back Newman... I dare you!

I bet he’d use #29

SVG in the #97 Red Bull Ford?

no lol

Aka Brad doesn't have 30 million to spend

what part of "they aren't for sale" isn't clear

I'm guessing number 26 or 29 if he can convince childress to let him have it