Kaulig Racing jumps off to B-plus start to begin 2025
04/12/2025 04:00 AM
Throughout the 2024 NASCAR season, Kaulig Racing was overwhelmingly disappointing. Team president Chris Rice told Jayski.com last summer that the team had performed "terribly" up to that point of the season.
But less than a calendar year later, the two-team organization has turned a complete 180. It began by promoting AJ Allmendinger back up to the Cup Series program after spending the last three seasons bouncing back and forth between its Cup and Xfinity teams. Kaulig also sought after Ty Dillon, who considers the jump back to the Cup Series to be his best opportunity yet.
"Factually, this is the first team I‘ve raced for that‘s actually won a race in the Cup Series," Dillon told Jayski.com ahead of the 2025 season getting started at Daytona International Speedway. "If you put it on paper and look at the statistics of the team, this has been the most successful team I‘ve been a part of."
Changes within Kaulig Racing began last fall. The team hired Ty Norris as its chief business officer to focus on partnerships and long-term strategy for the operation. The following week, it announced the full time signing of Dillon, which brought a closer connection to Richard Childress Racing, already aligned with Kaulig.
"I wanted to tie us into RCR a little bit tighter, and I thought that was a good fit," Rice stated. "We were able to get some partners and sponsors and things that go with it that we need for the business side. We‘ve gotten quite a few — it‘s honestly been surprising how well we‘ve done with Ty and how much we‘ve sold on Ty‘s car. Those are the keys that really made it happen."
Through the opening two months of the 2025 season, Allmendinger is 16th in the regular season standings, but with Josh Berry‘s victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, slots in 17th on the Playoff grid, nine points behind Kyle Busch. Meanwhile, Dillon has scored a quartet of top 20 finishes, and his 20.8 average finish is hovering around a career best (20.6 in 2019). Dillon is currently 25th in the standings, ahead of his older brother Austin Dillon and the in-house RCR team (27th).
Without Allmendinger blowing an engine on Lap 42 of the Daytona 500 and having a loose tire late at Circuit of The Americas dropping the No. 16 car to 30th in the finishing order, it‘s entirely possible that he‘d be inside the top 10 in points.
"I would give them a B-plus," Rice said of the Cup program. "I feel like we‘re executing well. Here‘s what I look at: we‘re not a key partner, we‘re a second-tier partner. We don‘t get all the information that the key partners get. We do have an alliance with RCR, but that means we have to pay for it. When I look at there being 24 key partners and we can run inside the top 24 with both of our cars, we‘re doing our job and doing what we‘re supposed to do."
As for what‘s different, Allmendinger — the heart and spirit of Kaulig — believes the driveability of the cars are better from last year when he competed in nearly half the schedule. It also has fresh ideas, hiring Andrew Dickerson, who was previously a RCR engineer, as Dillon‘s crew chief.
"We‘ve definitely had some strong runs," Allmendinger told reporters last weekend at Darlington Raceway. "I think, generally, we‘re making our stuff better. We need to keep improving on it, but at least we‘re in the ballgame right now when it comes to [eight] races into the season."
With Allmendinger ranking 16th in the championship standings, this is the highest a Kaulig entry has been in the championship standings this late into a Cup season. At this time last year, its lone full-time driver Daniel Hemric was 30th in the standings.
The uptick in performance has Rice giddy for what‘s ahead with the company.
"I‘m pumped about our Cup program," Rice added. "I feel like there is a big future on Sundays and it‘s a big deal about how we‘re going about it now, how aggressive we‘re being inside the shop, how aggressive we‘re being with our people. I love it. Pumped about our pit crew. Can‘t say enough good things about our Sundays right now."
This weekend‘s site of Bristol Motor Speedway has been a track that historically Kaulig has struggled at. However, Allmendinger had a strong seventh-place showing in 2022.
