Kaulig Racing has spent the last decade building up its empire in the NASCAR Xfinity Series but following the conclusion of Saturday’s Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway, the organization is choosing to take a pause from the second-tier division.
During a weekly call-in to SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Chris Rice, the recently named CEO of Kaulig Racing, confirmed the speculation that the organization would be pausing its program in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, citing the reason as having to put focus on their other ventures.
In August, Kaulig Racing was named the sole factory team for RAM’s re-entry into NASCAR’s National Series in 2026, with a five-truck program on tap. That, along with keeping the team’s NASCAR Cup Series program afloat, will require the team’s full attention for the foreseeable future.
“The Xfinity Series is where we were born and raised,” said an emotional Rice. “We have made a choice that we need to focus really hard on our [Truck Series] program and our [Cup Series] program to push it forward. So, you guys will see us back in [the] Xfinity Series in the coming years, but we gotta pause it for a little bit.”
As far as what the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series program is going to look like for RAM and Kaulig Racing in 2026, it’s still mostly unknown. Brenden Queen is the only driver to have been revealed on the team’s roster for next season, with additional spots to be filled at a later date.
However, in order to make this effort as competitive as possible, both Chris Rice and Matt Kaulig agreed that shutting down the Xfinity Series program was a necessary evil.
“It’s been some emotions for me over the last month as we made this decision,” Rice added. “Matt [Kaulig] and I made this decision flying home one day. It’s not like we want to; we really don’t have a choice. We gotta make sure that the RAM trucks are where they need to be. Those guys have taken a huge chance on us, and we wanna show them where we’re behind them to build this thing pretty big.”
Throughout a 10-year stint in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, Kaulig Racing was able to collect an impressive 27 victories – between drivers Ross Chastain, AJ Allmendinger, Justin Haley, Jeb Burton, Chandler Smith, Kyle Larson, and Shane van Gisbergen.
Throughout a 10-year stint in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, which began with a single-vehicle effort with Blake Koch behind the wheel, Kaulig Racing has managed to collect 27 victories in the NASCAR Xfinity Series – doing so between drivers Ross Chastain, AJ Allmendinger, Justin Haley, Jeb Burton, Chandler Smith, Kyle Larson, and Shane Van Gisbergen – as well as 141 top-five finishes, 336 top-10s, and 18 pole positions.
Other notable drivers to have taken a turn behind the wheel of a Kaulig Racing entry in the NASCAR Xfinity Series include Austin Dillon, Ryan Truex, Elliott Sadler, Zane Smith, Landon Cassill, Daniel Hemric, Kyle Busch, Derek Kraus, Justin Marks, Layne Riggs, Daniel Suarez, Jordan Taylor, Will Brown, Carson Hocevar, and Michel McDowell.
Daniel Dye (No. 10), Brenden Queen (No. 11), and Christian Eckes (No. 16) will be the final three drivers to pilot a Kaulig Racing entry in the NASCAR Xfinity Series (for now), competing in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway.
