When Stellantis announced its return to NASCAR and the Craftsman Truck Series, questions immediately turned to Dodge's future in the Cup Series. Now, a high-level executive has provided a partial answer.
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Tim Kuniskis, who holds multiple titles at Stellantis including Ram CEO, has said the goal is to be in the Cup Series by the 2027 Daytona 500. Although he acknowledges that this isn't as easy as taking on the Truck Series with Kaulig Racing.
The Cup Series development is a little more complicated than the Truck Series, which has a spec engine.
"It is very, very complicated with the simulators and engine program and all that stuff," Kuniskis told media members on Wednesday afternoon. "So we'll see, but we're really happy to be able to get in with Truck now.
"And I told everybody our goal would be to get into Cup, Daytona next year, and so far, every single person has told me that's absolutely impossible and I'm crazy and it's never going to happen. I don't know. I'm not giving up yet."
This is not the first time that Kuniskis has addressed the possibility of competing in the 2027 Daytona 500. He listed it as a possible goal during a June 2025 appearance on "Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour" podcast. He particularly said that a couple of things from Dodge's "legacy" would potentially speed up the development time needed to field a Cup Series entry.
Stellantis already has one willing partner in this journey, Kaulig Racing, who will be the Ram factory team in 2026 and beyond while fielding five Truck Series entries.
Kaulig Racing does not have a technical alliance with Richard Childress Racing as in past seasons; the team is essentially on its own this year while fielding Chevrolet entries in the Cup Series for AJ Allmendinger and Ty Dillon.
"Any time you're trying to do something on your own, I think there's challenges, but there's also positives," Allmendinger told FanBuzz at Phoenix Raceway in November. "Because there's things that maybe that we want to do that we haven't been able to do that we can go try."
Kaulig will field Chevrolet entries in Cup this season, but the team is a natural fit to switch to Dodge in 2027, provided Stellantis can hit the goal timeline.
The team would have direct factory support, and it would be a "tier one" team much like the top organizations representing Chevrolet, Ford, and Toyota.
Kuniskis acknowledged this potential future with Kaulig Racing on Wednesday when discussing his goal of making it to Daytona in 2027.
"I mean, we could never get somebody like Kaulig to work with us if we didn't have the sincere intention to try to get to Cup," Kuniskis said. "It's not an announcement. It's not saying we're going to Cup, but we have every intention to want to get there."
