Dodge Expected to Announce Kaulig Partnership This Weekend

The Dodge-to-NASCAR drumbeat is no longer just background noise, Auto Action believes the long-awaited announcement is coming this weekend at Daytona. A media call is expected at a nearby Dodge/RAM dealership, signalling the brand’s official return to stock car racing.

We understand Dodge will unveil Kaulig Racing as its first partner, with Trackhouse Racing still firmly on the radar, as revealed in Auto Action Premium #1909.

Fittingly, the dealership tipped to host the announcement is owned by the father of Kaulig’s Xfinity young gun, Daniel Dye.

The playbook isn’t unusual. Announcing a Cup Series plan more than a year out gives time for engines, sims, and infrastructure to catch up. What’s unlikely is a team flipping badges in a matter of months, nobody builds a competitive Cup Series program overnight, no matter how many PowerPoints the PR team pumps out. But a headline now for a 2027 or 2028 launch? That’s just another Tuesday in motorsport.

Brandon Hightower, driver of the #13 Premier Recycling/Timmons Truck Center Dodge, races during the NASCAR XFINITY Series Ford EcoBoost 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway on November 19, 2016 in Homestead, Florida. Image: Sarah Crabill/Getty Images

Kaulig looks like a convenient launchpad. Their ties with Richard Childress Racing are strong, but Dodge reportedly has little interest in a messy Chevrolet divorce settlement. RCR is seen as too welded to the Bowtie to bother, especially with its very lucrative Chev engine shop.

Kaulig, by contrast, is the fresh-faced up-and-comer, an ambitious team still working out its identity in Cup. With factory cash behind it, they could go from underdog to “suddenly everyone’s cousin wants tickets” in a heartbeat.

There’s also chatter that Kaulig could be the first to fly the Dodge flag in Trucks and even Xfinity next year, using a crate engine as a stop-gap. That would make sense as a bridge program while Mopar’s engineers cook up a Cup engine and simulator package. But it would be seismic, given Kaulig’s political and technical ties to Childress. If it happens, it’ll be because Dodge showed up with a cheque book thicker than a Daytona phone book.

For now, Kaulig is being painted as Dodge’s “little one”, a trial balloon before a bigger fish like Trackhouse gets reeled in. Whether that’s fact or just garage gossip depends on how much weight you give to paddock whispers and sideways glances.

Still, the signs are hard to ignore. Dodge hasn’t been in Cup since 2012, but with manufacturer wars heating up and NASCAR hungry for fresh headlines, the Pentastar badge looks closer to rolling back through pitlane.

Daytona will be the stage, Kaulig the messenger, and 2027 the is likely to be the year it all kicks off.

But until someone actually bolts a Hemi under the bonnet and drops the clutch, it’s still just rumours, the kind that fuel bar talks and make rival PR departments break out in nervous sweats.

Dodge has confirmed it will join the NASCAR Truck Series with the RAM. Image: Supplied