Kaulig Racing President Chris Rice dropped an honest take on Dodge’s Cup Series return. He revealed that building an engine is the ‘biggest problem’ holding back the manufacturer.
Dodge has been rumoured for a Cup Series return as soon as 2027. The brand’s parent company, Stellantis, has already fielded RAM as an OEM in the Truck Series, making Kauling Racing the only team working with two OEMS.
The team is involved with Chevrolet in the Cup Series, while they shut down their O’Reilly division to focus on their five-car Truck outfit. On the latest episode of Door Bumper Clear, Rice went over Kaulig’s Cup Series future, saying,
“In NASCAR, you’re supposed to have, you know, your engine in a car. The only reason Dodge left guys, don’t many people know this, is they didn’t have an engine. Penske went to Ford. Penske was building the engines. They had no engine.
They had nowhere to go,” said Rice.“In NASCAR and CUP, you have to have your own engine,” he continued, “so engine is the biggest problem. Right now are they coming back to NASCAR? I can tell you on this show right now. Kaulig Racing, Matt Kaulig, Chris Rice, Everybody at Kaulig Racing would love to have them back. It would be great for the sport.”
Kaulig Racing’s Truck Series team has four full-time drivers and a rotating roster of all-star drivers for the fifth entry. Reigning ARCA Menards champion Brenden Queen is leading the team with four top-10 results in 13 starts, followed by former Cup driver Justin Haley with three top-10s.
Former Cup Series driver Corey LaJoie took over full-time duties midway through the season, after Daniel Dye was ousted for his insensitive remarks on IndyCar driver David Malukas. LaJoie has two top-10s to his name, but his 3 DNFs are the most out of the RAM outfit.
Brad Keselowski shuts down rumours of Dodge switch
Roush Performance recently announced a partnership with Dodge, prompting widespread rumours of RFK Racing’s OEM future. Fans believed RFKR may switch sides next year, but team owner Brad Keselowski quickly squashed the chatter, since Roush Performance and the Cup Series team are two separate entities.
He took to X and wrote,
“For those asking- RFK racing has a multiyear agreement with @fordracing and a commitment from their leadership to return the program to a championship contender. Any speculation else-wise makes for great internet talk but, it is not based on anything real.”
Fans then moved on to a potential collaboration between Team Penske and Dodge, as the team previously worked with the OEM. Dodge left the series in 2013 and allowed Ford to move into Penske’s camp.
Notably, Penske was their only factory-supported team at the time.
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