Which is wild because they were pretty much hated across the board by everyone that drove them. That's why they rounded it out hard in 2007 and almost just turned it back into the intrepid nose.
I just remember snippets of Richmond where he was basically like "why do I race?" and no matter how much video I watch, and how much sim time, I keep having the same issues (burning off the tires)
I think it's short term dismally of performance in NXS and Cup. Gotta believe they are getting a cash infusion to shore up their entire operation.
With that being said, running a theoritical full Cup, NXS and Truck operation (engine shop too?!).... they'll need a full campus to do that. Building new seems cost inhibitive....unless a current team with an engine shop is also converting manufacturers as well....
If that's the case I don't know how it can really be considered the same team. Kinda like JGR ARCA for example, it's just two separate race teams operating under the Kaulig umbrella.
Probably the same location as their cup/Xfinity shop, I can't say for sure since JGR is one of the handful of teams I haven't been to, but I know it operates as a separate entity with completely different people working on them. It wouldn't be much different than JGR opening up an ice cream production plant on their campus, hiring 100% different people to run said plant, and then the only thing they have in common is they're both owned by Gibbs.
Not really considering trucks all run the same power. This is way less difficult of an entry than Toyota with trucks 20 years ago. Toyota had to build an engine program, RAM can re-enter without doing so. Ironically the Ilmor power they run is a Chevy engine
And they’ll continue to be aligned with RCR in OAPS.
Tbh I think the forward numbers work better on the truck than cup. Maybe cause the center of gravity looks farther forward on the trucks or something idk
0 support to Kaulig next year... I don't know how they will run in XFinity and Cup and how much they would have to downsize their. They wouldn't mind losing their charters because they would get them back for free with Dodge.
I doubt they are giving support as is now, they would be fifth or sixth in the totem pole in getting support as is, probably Hyak is the other team on their level right now or worse.
Did not know that. If anything they’re better off finding another new team or two to diversify the teams up instead of putting your eggs in one basket.
Provided Stellantis has assured it’s Cup racing soon, Kaulig should just lease its Cup charters and get some cash instead of subjecting yourself to the bottom-three rule.
You gotta understand that they will be the Ram factory team which means they are going to get a TON of support from Stellantis, by far more manufacturer support that they have ever gotten on any level.
Obviously they will have work to do in terms of finding good setups and building data and all that. But this is way different than just randomly deciding to start a truck program out of the blue
Manufacturer support at the truck level is mostly financial, in the form of sponsorship. They don’t build the engines and certainly won’t be building the trucks. Stellantis and Kaulig have never raced in the truck series before. This is absolutely like starting five brand new teams out of the blue.
Thats the point I'm trying to make is they will have the financial support to be able to actually start a legit team and hire a bunch of people and they won't be stretching themselves thin in terms of personnel and resources.
Obviously they will need to learn the setups and learn how to make the trucks run fast no shit. But imo these are the moves you have to make in order to become a tier 1 partner 🤷♂️. Makes sense on the Stellantis end too because Kaulig has existing teams in the other two series which are harder to get into so there is easy entry for them there too.
Also there is a general hate for Kaulig on this sub for some reason so whatever it is what it is. If Trackhouse made this move they would be prasied to high heaven despite their equipment also being mid and all of their success coming from their generationally talented drivers (Chastain, SVG, Zilisch)
You can throw all the money you want at it, it doesn’t mean it’s going to work. Kaulig has not shown that it can scale its operations so everyone is right to be skeptical of them almost doubling in size overnight. That’s the point I’m trying to make.
Trackhouse turned this down as did every other team. It’s well known that Stellantis went to every single team in the garage and Kaulig is the only one to take them up on it.
hey look at frm. a team without a ton of resources in cup still has more than enough resources to be competitive in trucks. granted frm initially only opened 1 truck
FRMs truck team started with one truck and it was a DGR Crosley operated truck for Todd Gilliland, whose dad is the DG in DGR. Not quite the same as opening five brand new teams at once.
I wonder what does it mean for their XFinity and Cup teams now that they will TOTALLY lose any kind of support from Chevy.
Will they shrink down to 1 Cup car and 2 XFinity teams as a result?
If I had to guess; Sell the Xfinity team to Spire, sell a charter to someone and run 1 cup car, I'd say for AJ. They get a free(?) charter when Dodge comes to cup anyway.
What does this mean for the Kaulig Xfinity and Cup teams? Assumedly Chevy will pull any support they’re giving them, if any? This means we’ll see Kaulig bring Dodge to Xfinity and cup right?
This is so weird. I don't understand why they would even bother running in cup and Xfinity. Dinger is going to have a complete mental collapse running in back of the pack dump trucks.
Despite what people on the internet say, AJ has said he prefers to be in Cup. And Kaulig said he'll be back in the 16 next year. Plus, with all the change going on over there, I think keeping Ty and AJ in the 10 and 16 to have some stability is for the best
Eh team was pretty adamant a few weeks ago that theyre going with AJ and Ty again in 2026 and the Dodge/Kaulig rumors were around even longer than that so Ty is back for at least next year
Y'all notice the images they posted have the number pushed forward like the cup cars? I'm assuming that's just for the show car and the Kaulig/Ram logo but still
214
u/FridgusDomin8or 5d ago
WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN THEY’RE RUNNING FIVE TRUCKS NEXT YEAR WHAT???