The new Kaulig Racing Ram NASCAR Truck Series team hasn’t even hit the track yet, but Ram’s sister brand Dodge could be right behind it.
Tim Kuniskis, who is both Ram CEO and head of all of the American Stellantis brands, confirmed on Wednesday that efforts are underway for Dodge’s return to the Cup Series in 2027.
He said the timing is ambitious, and it’s far from certain that it will be able to pull it off, but that it is working toward the goal of being at the Daytona 500 next year.
“I told everybody our goal would be to get into Cup, Daytona next year, and so far, every single person has told me that’s absolutely impossible and I’m crazy and it’s never going to happen. I don’t know. I’m not giving up yet,” Kuniskis said.
Ram’s return to truck racing was relatively simple, because the series uses spec chassis and engines, so Ram just had to design a body and get the team together with Kaulig Racing.
A cup effort is far more extensive, even with the NASCAR Next Gen chassis, which shares many of its parts across all of the brands. Along with a Charger body, Dodge would need to develop and build its own motors. Kaulig Racing CEO Chris Rice has previously suggested the team could do the engines in-house, but it is a massive undertaking, even without an accelerated timeline to deal with.
Kaulig Racing continues to Chevrolets in the Cup Series alongside the Ram Truck Series program, but enjoy the same sort of factory support it has in the past as it is clearly working towards a Dodge entry. Dodge hasn’t had a factory Cup Series program since 2012, when Brad Keselowski won the championship with Team Penske, which switched to Ford the following year.
Dodge had developed a new sixth generation Dodge Charger Cup Series car for 2013, but was unable to find a team to work with and the car never raced. A prototype still exists in the automaker’s collection, but both the production Charger and Cup Series car have moved on to new generations in the years since.
Kuniskis made the announcement during a Q&A session about Tony Stewart’s entry in the Daytona Truck Series race as the first of the Free Agent drivers Kaulig Racing plans to rotate through the No. 25 truck throughout the season.
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Stewart said he’s been doing some iRacing to get read for his first Truck Series race since 2005, but that he’s probably not as prepared as he should be and still has a few things to do over the next couple of weeks. He picked Daytona despite its unpredictability because he wanted to be part of the brand’s big kick-off. The race will mark Stewart’s first NASCAR race of any type since he retired from full-time driving in 2016.
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dodge will be wrong going w charger instead of a challenger