Ryan Preece Joins RFK in Expanded 3rd Car for 2025
What’s Happening? After months of speculation, RFK Racing announced on Tuesday morning that it will expand to three full-time cars for…
Gifts for NASCAR Fans
With the 2025 NASCAR Season in the books and 2026 on the way, it’s time to take a look back at some of the 2025 free agent signings that paid off for teams, even though they may have been overlooked entering the new year.
RFK Racing took a step in a new direction in 2025, leasing a charter from Rick Ware Racing to field a third full-time car for the coming season.
To drive the car, the team turned to former Stewart-Haas Racing driver Ryan Preece, who, despite success in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour, had struggled at the sport’s highest level.
Though this seemed like a lost opportunity to find an underdog driver or new prospect, Preece would not disappoint in 2026, scoring career highs in nearly every statistical category and falling just shy of a playoff spot on points.
While Preece (and RFK as a whole) missed out on the playoffs, for the first year of a new car, Preece outperformed RFK co-owner Brad Keselowski and also had the second-best average finish of his four former SHR teammates.
In 2026, a win would be the obvious next step for Preece, something that RFK’s roster failed to do in 2025; nonetheless, the perceived risk of signing Preece paid off for RFK.
What’s Happening? After months of speculation, RFK Racing announced on Tuesday morning that it will expand to three full-time cars for…
Amid the reshuffling of SHR into the Haas Factory Team, HFT retained SHR’s two-car NASCAR Xfinity Series operation, bringing in a refreshed roster with Sam Mayer and Sheldon Creed.
At one point in his career, Mayer was looked at as a potential star for Chevrolet, and even though he won often in three years at JR Motorsports, the now series veteran failed to find consistency.
The 2025 season would ultimately result in Mayer flipping his past performance in the series, only winning one race, but scoring a career-high average finish of 11.5, and sitting near the top of the standings for a majority of the season.
Mayer will be back in the No. 41 in 2026 and back in the Chevrolet camp. While he seems like a championship contender, more consistency and less on-track drama could take him to new heights in the newly named NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series.
It’s hard to call a rookie of the year underrated, but with no prior experience in NASCAR’s National Series, what Gio Ruggiero did in 2025 cannot be overlooked by NASCAR fans.
With the promotion of Taylor Gray to Joe Gibbs Racing, TRICON Garage brought on Giovanni Ruggiero to drive their No. 17.
While fans may not have known much about Ruggiero, the young driver had just scored a top ride with a five-truck operation that had a winning record.
Despite their large field of trucks, only one driver had ever won at TRICON (formerly DGR-Crosley) under the TRICON banner, Corey Heim. Fortunately, Ruggiero would break this streak for the team’s four other entries in 2025.
The 20-year-old would start the season out racing mid-pack, with a 13.6 average finish through the first 13 races. But, in the final 12 races of 2025, Ruggiero turned on the jets, outperforming several playoff drivers with a win at Talladega, riding atop five top-fives, six top-tens, and an 11.1 average finish.
Next season, the playoffs would be a clear sign of improvement from Ruggiero, but with Corey Heim out of the picture and his improved consistency, there is a world where Ruggiero makes a run at the title.
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