DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Ram’s planned return to NASCAR competition now has its first affiliated team: Kaulig Racing.
The multiyear partnership was announced Saturday at the Daytona Dodge Chrysler Jeep Ram dealership, just hours before the Cup Series’ Coke Zero Sugar 400 (7:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Peacock) at Daytona International Speedway. When the circuit returns to the 2.5-mile track in February for NASCAR’s season openers, the Matt Kaulig-owned team will be part of the Craftsman Truck Series grid for the first time, boldly announcing that five Kaulig trucks will be carrying the Ram banner.
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“I know Ram doesn’t do anything small, as you can see by the dealerships and everything else, and I know at Kaulig Racing, we don’t do anything small,” Matt Kaulig said at Saturday’s presentation, where a No. 10 Ram truck with Kaulig branding was unveiled. “So when we’re going into the truck series, we’re not going to kind of silently come in or just kind of tiptoe our way in. We’re doing it big.”
Ram announced on June 8 its intent to return to NASCAR, unveiling a Ram 1500 concept race truck at Michigan International Speedway. Ram CEO Tim Kuniskis said in the days leading up to the unveil that his company was “looking for a date to the prom right now.” The first dance will go to Kaulig, which will expand its operations into a third NASCAR national series alongside its multicar efforts in both the Cup and O’Reilly Auto Parts Series.
Ram and Kaulig officials indicated that the rest of the team structure, driver lineup and other launch plans will be announced in the coming months. Kaulig team president Chris Rice said that the team will keep its operations in Welcome, North Carolina, but that the organization was seeking more properties in the area to aid the expansion effort.
Rice acknowledged that the timeline to be race-ready with a five-truck fleet between now and the Feb. 13 Craftsman Truck Series opener was an ambitious one, joking that job applications to support expansion would be taken on the spot in the back of the dealership. He also admitted that the rapid growth in a short span could present challenges to the team’s bid to be competitive right away.
“All we can say is we’re going to sit here and give you all that we can give you,” Rice said. “We’re going to show you, and we’re going to do the best we can. Are we going to fail at times? Absolutely, are we going to have people talk about us at times how bad we did? Absolutely, we’ve made some decisions that people have laughed at, but I can tell you what we’re going to do. We’re going to do it different, and it’s going to be a lot of fun doing it.”
Nate Buelow — SVP of Brand Marketing for Stellantis North America, Ram’s parent company — indicated that for now, the automaker was exclusively partnered with Kaulig Racing as the “anchor team for our entire endeavor.” Buelow said that signing additional partner teams was a part of the manufacturer’s plans, but that Kaulig would be the centerpiece of Ram’s initial thrust.
“We’ve leaned very heavily into their expertise as we’ve been getting our plans together to re-enter back into it,” Buelow said. “We want to make sure that that is a solid, sustainable effort before we start looking at all the other places that we can go. We’re not opposed to any of those opportunities, but we’ve got a lot of work to do right now, so we want to focus in on that now and see where it grows.”
Ram’s June announcement came with a hint about the Stellantis group’s intentions to eventually return to racing in the Cup Series, potentially with Dodge branding. Dodge last competed in NASCAR’s top division as a factory effort in 2012, when Brad Keselowski won the championship in a Roger Penske-owned Charger.
Buelow said the timeline for that potential return is still unclear.
“I wish we could tell you today,” Buelow said. “I think we’ve got a lot of work to do to get these five trucks on track first, and then Cup is the next thing on our agenda to figure it out. How are we going to do it? What are we going to do? … I’d hate to commit to the timing with you, but it is a much bigger endeavor. With trucks being a spec chassis, we’ve got the body, we’re through aero and all that good stuff. Cup is just such a bigger endeavor, and a lot of work has to be done in developing an engine and all that.”
Whether Kaulig Racing is a part of that effort is undetermined. The organization — which began as a single-car Xfinity team in 2016 — has an existing partnership with Chevrolet for its Cup and Xfinity cars, and the team is headquartered near Chevy-loyal neighbors in Richard Childress Racing.
Matt Kaulig said that he’s viewing the Truck Series effort with Ram as a separate entity.
“We don’t really have a goal that way,” Kaulig said when asked about a Cup Series manufacturer shift. “I mean, we’re taking it as we’re Ram trucks, we’re running the Truck Series. I mean, we’re still Chevy with Xfinity and Cup. We’ve had great relationships there, great relationships with Richard Childress and RCR, and so we literally are keeping it separate and just viewing it that way. … Every team’s tied to a manufacturer right now, but over the years, people have switched manufacturers. So we don’t look at it as we’re switching manufacturers. We look at it as we’re going truck racing with Ram.”