NASCAR: RFK Racing expanding to three cars in 2025 with arrival of Ryan Preece

One of NASCAR’s worst-kept secrets is officially official.

Ryan Preece will drive a third car for Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing in 2025. Preece joins Brad Keselowski and Chris Buescher as RFK expands back to three full-time cars for the first time since the 2016 season.

Preece comes to RFK along with longtime NASCAR sponsor Kroger. The grocery chain has been a sponsor of JTG-Daugherty Racing since 2010. The team said that Kroger and its various associated brands will serve as a sponsor of all three of its cars at various points across the 2025 season.

JTG-Daugherty is set to compete in 2025 with longtime driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr. with sponsorship to be announced.

Preece spent the last two seasons at Stewart-Haas Racing after he drove for three full-time seasons at JTG-Daugherty from 2019-2021. Over 187 career Cup Series starts, the 34-year-old has four top-five finishes and 16 top 10s.

Two of those top fives came in his SHR tenure. Preece was 23rd in the standings in 2023 and was 26th in 2024. He was in need of a ride entering the 2025 season because SHR shut down at the end of the 2024 season. The four-car team announced earlier this year that it would be ending operations as co-owner Gene Haas would continue to field a one-car team in 2025.

Cole Custer is set to drive for Haas next season as the team sells three of its charters. One of those charters has been purchased by Trackhouse Racing and the other two are earmarked for 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports. However it’s currently unclear what the status of those sales are as both 23XI and Front Row have filed a lawsuit against NASCAR over the new charter agreement.

No charter sale has been announced for RFK's new car, though the Athletic reported that the charter for Preece's car is likely to come from Rick Ware Racing.

RFK’s performance has improved over the past two seasons as the team has scored five wins. Chris Buescher has four of those, though he missed the playoffs in 2024 before winning at Watkins Glen this fall. Brad Keselowski qualified for the playoffs with a win in the spring race at Darlington.

Keselowski finished 13th in the points standings in 2024 after he was eighth a season ago. Buescher was 17th — the highest-finishing non-playoff driver — after he was seventh in 2023.