Today, Ram Trucks made the long-awaited announcement as to the first team moving to the new OEM in the Craftsman Truck Series. A few short months ago, we were one of the first to drop hints at Ram coming back to NASCAR. We mentioned Kaulig as the frontrunner for the Ram program, as they had been mentioning joining the Truck Series, and the press announcement came from a dealership owned by Kaulig Racing driver Daniel Dye’s father.

Today, Ram Trucks and Kaulig Racing made it official: they will go Craftsman Truck racing together in 2026. Starting at the high banks of Daytona International Speedway in February, Kaulig Racing will field five Ram 1500 trucks as the first new OEM’s factory team. Ram represents the first arrival of a new OEM in NASCAR since 2004 with Toyota in the Truck Series.

Kaulig will continue to field all three of its series out of its Welcome, NC shop shared with the O’Reilly Series and Cup Series programs next year. Though with the different OEMs (Kaulig currently runs Chevrolet’s in those series), the team will have to separate the Truck shop from the Chevrolet shops.

Kaulig Racing was established in 2016 as an Xfinity Series team by Ohio business owner Matt Kaulig. Since 2016, the team has won 29 races across the Xfinity and Cup Series, even making a Final 4 appearance in the 2020 Xfinity Series Championship with Justin Haley. If nothing changes in their current programs, Kaulig will field 10 race cars in 2026, including their Truck Series program.

NASCAR is currently working on a new testing policy for Kaulig and Ram so that they can test before the green flag drops in February

Images via Kaulig Racing