Kaulig Racing President Takes a Shot at the Big Dogs as NASCAR Levels the Field

Racing on the whole is indeed a team sport, with every individual, including the engineers, crew members, management, and drivers, playing a pivotal role. With the organization doing all it can to make it more competitive by leveling the playing field for teams, the focus has shifted towards smaller teams.

RFK Racing, Front Row Motorsports, and Kaulig Racing are some of the perfect examples of this. Unlike NASCAR’s winningest teams—Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing, and Stewart-Haas Racing—these once mediocre teams have had a resounding impact as we head into the playoffs.

While SHR is a primary example of what could go wrong in a competent camp, RFK Racing is an ideal example of how a smaller team can dwarf its fellow Ford camp through sheer work ethic and perseverance. Now coming to the recent happenings, Kaulig Racing insiders took a sly jab at their fellow Chevy counterpart, Hendrick Motorsports, mentioning how they managed to make major improvements.

“You don’t see Hendrick (Motorsports) winning every race”, Chris Rice says, firing shots at HMS and JGR

NASCAR’s introduction of the Next-Gen race cars has had a strong impact, as many experts thought it would. The new and improved race cars are simply miles ahead in terms of safety and have leveled the playing field considerably for smaller teams.

Thus making the organization’s events a lot more competitive and exciting. A prime example of this was last Saturday, when RFK Racing got the top two positions, outclassing the larger and more resourceful teams. Not only was Brad Keselowski‘s team more competitive, but the two-car Ford team showed excellent consistency, unlike Stewart-Haas Racing.

Speaking on the popular DBC podcast, Kaulig Racing president Chris Rice reiterated his stance, taking subtle jabs at Rick Hendrick’s and Joe Gibbs’ teams. Mentioning how his team has made strides this season, Rice said, “We found an advantage, we went from dead last at the first part of the year to where we now compete 10th to 15th so it has made the racing better.

“You don’t see Hendrick (Motorsports) winning every race, you don’t see (Joe)Gibbs(Racing) winning every race, so I do, still do like the car, I don’t like what happened on Saturday night.”

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To solidify his point, the 24-year-old Justin Haley was the only driver in the field who took it to Trackhouse Racing‘s Shane Van Gisbergen at Chicago as he held his ground against a veteran road racer.

While the boss is all positive about the team’s future, he certainly did not sugarcoat the situation at Kaulig Racing, as he revealed the obvious.

Kaulig Racing’s president gets real about the scene within the team

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Rick Ware Racing came out with a major announcement for its 2024 campaign, with Justin Haley switching camps to RWR. While the news of the driver’s departure from the Chevy camp shocked some fans, Rice feels like he has figured out a better replacement for the 24-year-old.

Speaking to NASCAR’s official radio channel, Rice said, “The No. 31 car is pretty much done. It’s in good shape and like I said from the get-go, I think everybody is gonna be pretty surprised with what we’re doing with that. I’m excited, Matt Kaulig is excited, everybody that partners, and everybody that is involved is excited about it. That’s been a relief. I’ve been able to sleep a little bit.”

Though the boss man seemed optimistic about the future, he got real about the scene at Kaulig Racing, saying, “We’re still a couple of years from it. I think we’re still trying to learn, you know, we’ve done some testing, we actually had some testing for the guys to try to make the racing better so I still think we’re a couple of years from it.” 

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Mentioning how RFK Racing shattered all expectations, he said, “I’m still going to go on record and say, it’ll help us, I think some organizations or some OEMs find some advantages like I would say Roush Fenway(Racing) right now has found something that is probably not illegal, they just found an advantage of whether Ford needs to be at a different spot of something because they just all of a sudden became competitive.”