By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
Kaulig Racing saw a complete driver shake-up for 2025. Out was Daniel Hemric, in was AJ Allmendinger and Ty Dillon.
For the first time since 2023, Kaulig is running two full-time cars and the results have been the topic of conversation in the first quarter of the year.
“Going into Talladega, we are going to be right on the edge of the playoffs,” Allmendinger said Saturday. “If you asked me after the disappointment at COTA, I wasn’t even looking at the points.
“It’s been great seeing the speed that we bring to the track.”
Indeed, Allmendinger’s return to full-time Cup has been plentiful of speed, with the No. 16 Chevrolet going from 24th in points following Round 3 in COTA to currently 14th after Round 9 at Bristol.
In playoffs talk, he sits two points behind Kyle Busch for the final transfer spot. In other words, right on that edge.
“I don’t know if I ever come in, especially on the Cup side, with real expectations. I just want us to keep getting better,” he said. “The ultimate goal is you want to win a race, win races, be in the playoffs.
“But the fact of trying to go out there and just run better every week. Over the last five or six weeks, that has been the most exciting for us.”
And the results haven’t been exclusive to one car. Journeyman driver Ty Dillon entered Kaulig Racing in 2024, running five Cup races, before joining the team full-time this year.
Dillon may enter Talladega 29th in points, but the 33-year-old has scored four top-20 finishes in the first nine races.
And along with more than 200 career Cup starts on his resume, Dillon also brings a strong connection with a powerhouse team in Richard Childress Racing and brother Austin Dillon.
The benefit of family has tightened the relationship between Kaulig and RCR.
“It’s been a lot of fun having Ty in the race team,” he said. “Him and Austin [Dillon] are brothers and more than anything, that has tied our race teams together more. Which is what we’ve needed to do.
“Ty has brought a lot, and it’s just the additions that both organizations have made. A few of the Stewart-Haas guys that came over to RCR and Mike Cook [technical director] from SHR that came over to Kaulig.
“It has just brought the teams a lot closer together and I feel we are working, by far, the best we have ever worked together which is what we need to do to run with Hendrick and Gibbs.”
With the lone off-week in the rearview, Allmendinger and team are buckling down for 28 straight weekends of racing, eying race wins and playoff spots.
“I’ve been doing this for so long, you know the summer months can get long,” he said. “We got some good tracks during the summer for sure, but they can get long and that’s when teams can separate themselves. We got to keep working hard which I know we will.”