With less than three months left before its first race, the big question around Kaulig Racing and the Ram program is if it will be ready for 2026?
As the new manufacturer announced the launch of its free-agent program for one of the five truck rides, it demonstrated that Ram isn’t interested in doing everything on the traditional path. It hopes to generate buzz each race with potentially a different driver in the No. 25 truck.
Will it work?
Success likely depends on whether their trucks are competitive. Ram CEO Tim Kuniskis said he will leave that up to Kaulig Racing President Chris Rice and recently named Stellantis (parent company of Ram, Mopar, Dodge, etc.) racing manager Kevin Kidd.
“I think they are really in a good space,” Kuniskis told me earlier this week. “Chris and Kevin could tell you better than me, but the feedback that I’ve gotten, they’re feeling really comfortable where they’re at, comfortable enough that, they could dedicate some time to some other things, like what we’re doing here [with the free agent program].
“If they were up against the gun and worried, they would be the first ones to say, ‘Wait a minute. Our No. 1 priority is this. Get out of our way.’”
Kuniskis said it is still to be determined just how many drivers they put in the free-agent seat for the 25 races. He said it could be 25, one different driver for each race. He wouldn’t give names, and their plan is to wait until the Monday before each race to officially announce who will be behind the wheel.
The most iconic driver who potentially could do it is three-time Cup champion Tony Stewart, who drives for Dodge in NHRA. Stewart declined comment when asked about it over the weekend during the drag-racing season finale.
Could Tony Stewart take his talents to trucks in 2026?
“Of all the names that people have been guessing, his name comes up over and over and over and over again,” Kuniskis said. “Maybe [it’s the] connection to the drag racing that we do with NHRA? I’m not sure, but it comes up. That one and [YouTube star] Cleetus [McFarland]. Those two names come up constantly. … We’ll see. It’s going to be fun.”
The five-truck Kaulig/Ram program has three drivers announced: former Cup driver Justin Haley, defending ARCA champion Brenden Queen and Daniel Dye, who has competed in trucks and Xfinity over the last couple of years. The organization has not yet announced a driver for its fourth truck and then also has the free-agent truck.
Justin Haley will drive for the five-truck Kaulig/Ram program next season.
Kuniskis said the free-agent truck isn’t designed to give the organization feedback as much as it is to create buzz for the program.
There is one main criteria beyond generating fan interest:
“These are credible, safe drivers that can be on the grid and not cause any problems for anybody — that’s the No. 1 criteria,” Kuniskis said.
As far as the overall program and its long-term future, Kuniskis said the plan is to get to Cup, but he won’t put a timeline on it. He has previously said he has wanted 2027, but everyone is telling him it would have to be 2028 or beyond.
It doesn’t seem that 2027 is all that feasible.
“You can’t get a team the caliber of Kaulig without a sincere desire to go to Cup,” Kuniskis said. “It is 100 percent our desire to go to Cup. It’s very difficult, though. It’s much easier to go to truck than it is to Cup, and it takes a long time.
“They would never have signed with us. They would have never formed this partnership if we didn’t have a sincere desire to get there. And we do. We want to get there. It is our goal to get there. People tell me it’s going to take way longer than I have the patience for, but we’re trying.”
The key piece will be in the engine program. In trucks, there is a common engine across all manufacturers.
“It’s the engine development time that is the big, long lead, that is daunting. Cost and time to develop the engine, that’s the real daunting task,” Kuniskis said.
Entering NASCAR racing is daunting overall.
Kuniskis is trying to find a way to make it interesting and fun as well. Time will tell if his free agent program becomes a distraction, a facepalm or a fun thing to follow every race.
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.
