Kaulig Racing to Field Ram Trucks in Manufacturer’s Truck Series Return in 2026

By David Morgan, Associate Editor

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Ram Trucks made a big splash when the manufacturer announced its return to the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series earlier this season.

Now they have a team to carry the branding when they hit the track for the start of the 2026 season – Kaulig Racing.

Kaulig has participated in both the NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series in different capacities since its inception in 2016, and 10 years later, the team will make its Truck Series debut with the returning manufacturer.

In an announcement at the local Ram dealership in Daytona Beach, just a stone’s throw from Daytona International Speedway, team owner Matt Kaulig revealed that the team would field five Rams for the upcoming 2026 campaign.

“This partnership represents far more than a new chapter in Kaulig Racing’s history, it’s a union of shared values,” said Kaulig.

“Over the past decade, our team has built a legacy rooted in performance, integrity, and giving back to the community. To now join forces as the anchor team for Ram’s return to NASCAR is both an honor and a responsibility. Together, we’re ready to set a new standard on race day and in the impact we make off the track.”

The team currently fields Chevrolets in both the Cup and Xfinity Series and that will remain the status quo for those two series, while the new Truck operation will also be housed in and around the team’s current facilities on the Richard Childress Racing campus in Welcome, North Carolina.

“Ultimately, our organization, we’re going to be working with two different manufacturers and as we’ve had multiple conversations with our existing OEM, it’s all about respect for one another,” said Kaulig Racing CBO Ty Norris.

“That’s how (Ram) wants to approach it, that’s how Matt and Chris and I have talked about it. We understand there will be some firewalls that will have to be put up and we’re going to respect that and do whatever we have to do to be respectful to run these two OEMs.”

With such ambitious endeavors and the clock ticking to the green flag in Daytona next February, team president Chris Rice was confident that this is the right move for the team as they look toward the future to be able to accomplish everything they have set out to do in the Trucks without it being a detriment to their other programs in the Cup and Xfinity Series.

“We will die if we don’t have a partner like Ram or somebody that can come in and we can be an anchor team or a Tier 1 team or something like that,” said Rice.

“Do I worry about it hurting? Initially. I worry about it hurting everything initially. That’s just my worry… These guys just want us to go and push and we just find a way to not let it bother the others. That’s what we’re going to do.

“I think anytime you grow, it hurts another part of it, right? You have a second child, your first child gets looked at not the same. We want to be better. Our Cup program is phenomenal right now. I think it’s better than people give it credit for. Because it is a massive undertaking to go and beat the Hendricks, the Gibbs, the RCRs, and we do it…

“What we’re going to try and do is keep that separate and we’re going to keep our men and women that are already pushing on the other stuff pushing on that and we’re just going to add to it and make them live the Kaulig way.”

The re-entry into the Truck Series for Ram and Stellantis as a whole will also be a stepping stone to returning to the other series with the Dodge brand in the future, said Ram SVP Nate Buelow, but for now the manufacturer and Kaulig are focused on their current plans for the 2026 season.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do to get five trucks on the track next year, and a lot of learning to do across all of us and what that looks like,” said Buelow. “It’s been a long time since, let’s call it a MOPAR vehicle has run on a NASCAR track officially. That’s part of the process. To learn, to get there and every intention of getting back to Cup and running a Dodge again.”

The team noted that they did not have any announcements about the drivers that will pilot the Rams in 2026, but will be revealing those drivers in the weeks and months ahead between now and Daytona.