DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. —Ram officially makes its return to the Craftsman Truck Series and NASCAR on Friday night at Daytona International Speedway.
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This season-opening race will serve as a benchmark for the returning OEM partner as it shows where Ram stacks up against Chevrolet, Ford, and Toyota. But what exactly does the company expect during this inaugural season?
"Where we start should not represent where we end the season. If it does, that's an abject failure on our part," said Kevin Kidd, North American motorsports competition director for Stellantis.
"We have a lot of catching up to do to these guys. We're essentially starting from scratch. These guys have massive organizations with all kinds of infrastructure and technology behind them. That's our job. That's what we have to go create now."
Ram hasn't been a mainstay in the Craftsman Truck Series since the 2012 season due to teams losing factory support. Sure, some drivers still fielded the Ram body at times through the 2016 season, but it wasn't the same. These could be described as zombie operations.
In the decade-plus since Ram officially departed NASCAR, the other OEM partners have only grown stronger. Ford, Chevrolet, and Toyota have all won dozens of races. Each of these companies has celebrated championships.
They have all built up extensive notebooks about the changing technology, the updated bodies, and the respective tracks on the schedule. This is information that Ram did not have prior to partnering with Kaulig Racing, a team that has never competed in the Truck Series.
This lack of in-depth data created a potential deficit, as did the tight turnaround between August 2025 announcement and February 2026 debut.
Ram and Kaulig Racing had to get the infrastructure in place. This process included redoing the shop, bringing in new employees, and putting together enough chassis to make it through the early-season stretch featuring two drafting tracks and a road course.
"To think that we can come out of the gate and just absolutely knock it out of the park, yeah, sure, that's an optimistic goal for sure," Kidd added after discussing the turnaround time.
"But I think being realistic about it, if we can just take where we start and continue to make steady progress — this is a multi-year journey for us. This is not something that's going to just happen all on day one."
