Viking Motorsports is having a true breakout season, and their drivers Anthony Alfredo and Parker Retzlaff taking P4 and P5 at the O’Reilly’s race is the summation of how well things are currently going for the team. 

But none of it would have happened if they hadn’t expanded to a 2-car team when they took over Kaulig Racing inventory. 

Chris Rice, the CEO of Kaulig Racing, was buzzing when he was on the Door Bumper Clear podcast, and the hosts got to talking about Viking’s upward graph. 

Asked on the podcast why he was so happy with Viking’s performance, Rice said, “I talked to some of the guys, and I had Lenny Chandler, my guy. I was like, ‘Hey, check what cars those are.’ Those two cars AJ won about six races in. Those two cars are still good cars, and it makes me feel good that we were able to sell something and it was able to work for him.”

Kaulig sold their entire operations to Viking Motorsports in the NOAPS as they switched their attention to the Truck series, with RAM making a comeback to the sport. It included about 10 cars and all of their inventory, with Viking now receiving the support that Kaulig used to get from RCR. 

Rice was all praises for Viking and said, “That Parker’s good. Parker’s a good little racer, and hopefully he gets a really good spot. It’s just cool to see somebody like Viking. I know that guy. I know he spent a lot of money. Hopefully, he can stick around. 

Rice’s praise came for Parker Retzlaff, who took fifth in Sonoma and had previously taken second in Echo Park. The other bit of praise and support came for Don Sackett, the CEO and co-founder of Viking. Rice understands that NOAPS is a money-losing series, hence why he hoped Viking could stick around.

While he was all praise for Viking, Kaulig has things on their own side of both Truck and Cup garages that have them presently occupied. 

Kaulig’s Truck move impact on Cup side of things

Kaulig entered into a partnership with Stellantis to bring back RAM as an OEM in the Truck series. Previously partnered with Chevrolet, the move to bring RAM back has seen collateral damage for Kaulig’s Cup programme. 

While on the Truck side of things, they see decent progress as they search for race-winning potential in their five RAM trucks. Chevrolet has cut off all resources and data to Kaulig on the Cup side. 

While upgrades are few and far between, RAM has been left to fend for itself this season, and the proof of the pudding came with the race in San Diego. 

While all other teams took to the simulator, Kaulig simply didn’t have the resources to set up anything similar for their drivers. Despite that, veteran driver AJ Allmendinger took 45 points in 5th despite having zero track correlations. 

Allmendinger then took 16th in Sonoma, and before the race, he had spoken to the media about the much-anticipated entry of Dodge as a new OEM in the Cup series.

In the video uploaded by Cup Scene on YouTube, Allmendinger said that while the target is to enter, there is no clear timeline as the progress in the Truck series needs to show first in order to take further steps. 

Do you think switching to Dodge will make Kaulig a competitor in the Cup series? Let us know.

You can read more on the Daytona Racing Digest!

Written by

Debrup Chaudhuri

Edited by

Suyashdeep Sason