Despite Being on NASCAR’s Big Guns’ Radar, Kaulig President Dismisses Rumors of Facing Tony Stewart’s Cup Series Fate

Even YouTuber Eric Estepp agreed a couple of months ago, that Kaulig Racing seemed destined for a merger agreement/buyout from a ‘bigger’ team. Yet only weeks later, this Tuesday, Stewart-Haas Racing was the one that fell prey to NASCAR’s ruthless sponsorship madhouse.

With no more SHR, Kaulig can rest easy, knowing the clouds of constant scrutiny have disappeared for the time being. But there was never an inch of doubt in President Chris Rice’s mind that their charters would hold, in a sea of sharks waiting to pounce at the first drop of blood.

Kaulig dodges the bullet while Tony Stewart’s race team faces all the ‘Smoke’

Not even a decade away from their first race with Blake Koch in 2016, coupled with the five full-time cars currently running for Kaulig in NASCAR’s top-2 National Touring Series instead of one. And the experts seemed to surprisingly write RCR’s technical allies off from the Cup Series picture altogether. Add to that a giant’s fall in Tony Stewart’s very own race team, with assumed’minnows’ in the background, and the critics look helpless in front of Kaulig Racing.

On a recent episode of Door Bumper Clear, spotter Brett Griffin brought to light Kaulig Racing’s president’s latest opinions over the unnecessary attention following his race team. Griffin probed, “You said on the show I think a year ago and said: we do not have two charters for sale when it was being rumored. Where are you at now?”

Chris Rice made an emphatic declaration, replying to his host with eight strong words: “We do not have two charters for sale right now…“ He continued, “They’re not for sale. What we are interested in is getting partners… It’s a lot of people that are that are out here that you know, might want to invest…. But we’re not looking to sell. Matt (Kaulig) wants to be in the business for a long period of time.” 

Nevertheless, speaking about owner, Matt Kaulig’s various business ventures, his team president would provide an assuring statement to all Kaulig fans with a subtle comparison to an even bigger sinking ship. Rice continued, “Matt does a lot of investing in other businesses… I don’t know the real number but it’s above 70 in businesses that he’s either invested in or owns outright. So yeah. Matt’s not broke. Like I want to go on record, I think somebody said Matt was broke. Matt’s definitely not broke. I’ve watched this go down, and I always told him even back when Blake Koch was with us. I said I’m not going to let this sport break you… It’s not going to happen… it’s no need to right? “

He then touched upon Tony Stewart’s current grievances on the podcast, “Like, I think today at Stewart-Haas I keep hearing that they’re going to tell them what the future is. That’s what I keep hearing.” Griffin’s co-host, Casey Boat, confirming Chis Rice’s inhibitions in a disheartening announcement amidst news breaking from official social media channels of SHR’s total wipeout, would interrupt to say, “I think that’s going on right now…” 

Although the damage has since been done, Chris Rice asserted that “you can’t break Gene Haas.” To support his point, he offered a realistic conclusion that likened Gene Haas’s genius to Matt Kaulig’s, placing them in a similar hypothetical situation. “NASCAR might make Matt Kaulig mad and he might just decide, ‘Nope I’m done with it.’ But those guys that make a lot of money outside of NASCAR? They’re not like us. This is our living…” claimed Chris Rice. But how did it all come to be for Kaulig in the first place?

Enters A.J. Allmendinger

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Kaulig Racing has an interesting case. Starting as an Xfinity Series outfit in 2016, Kaulig allied with Richard Childress Racing, bringing in their notorious ECR engines, and even setting up shop near the RCR base in Welcome, NC, to gain a much-needed advantage. The three major players, Ohio businessman Matt Kaulig, longtime crew chief Chris Rice, and the race team’s first-ever driver of its #11 entry in the Xfinity Series, Blake Koch, got together to start a race team that would birth the first-ever ‘non-chartered’ race winner since the system’s implementation in that same year.

Three-time NASCAR race winner A.J. Allmendinger claimed this feat at the iconic Brickyard in the 2021 Verizon 200 road race. The Dinger would make only a handful of appearances in the Cup Series that season, driving Kaulig’s part-time #16 in its sophomore season and gracing the premier division. Consequently, that same year, A.J. Allmendinger marked his first full-time season in the Xfinity with Kaulig Racing and its #16 second-tier Chevrolet entry.

But the real crux of the story lies in the fact that A.J. Allmendinger won Matt Kaulig and Chris Rice their first Xfinity Series regular-season championship that year in just five short years. Garnering major attention, Allmendinger repeated his feat the following year, reaching the playoffs for the second consecutive time. However, this time, a few things were different.

First, The Dinger finished one spot lower than last year at fifth in the points standings. He also became a four-time, back-to-back winner at the Xfinity ROVAL race in Charlotte. But in the wider landscape, Kaulig Racing bought out their first two chartered spots to compete at a fair level in the NASCAR Cup Series points standings, right before the 2022 season.

Despite the great reset, Kaulig has won only once in the Cup Series, with yet again A.J. Allmendinger at the ROVAL in 2023. Interestingly, Chris Rice crew-headed The Dinger for both Cup wins with his race team. Since then, Kaulig has won only once, with yet again A.J. Allmendinger at the ROVAL in 2023.

Interestingly, Chris Rice crew chief-ed The Dinger for both his Cup wins with Kaulig. It would surely help if he did the same and maybe more for Kaulig’s current crop of extraordinary drivers. Ranging from the likes of 2021 Xfinity champ Daniel Hemric to 3X Supercars champ Shane van Gisbergen wheeling their #97 Camaro in the second series.