We’ve known since June that Ram would be returning to the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series next season, and in the weeks leading up to Saturday’s (Aug. 23) announcement, speculation largely pointed to Kaulig Racing dipping its toe into Truck Series competition.
On Aug. 23, the organization announced it would field five trucks for the 2026 season. During the announcement, Kaulig president Chris Rice made it clear all five trucks are planned to run the entire schedule, though it’s not yet determined if each one will have a full-time driver.
As I sat here trying to think about who might be a good candidate to join the organization’s entry into the Truck Series, the list started to get longer than the available rides. After all, there are several free agents and some other decisions that just make sense.
Parker Kligerman
You’ve got to think Parker Kligerman has had his racing itch renewed this year, especially after two wins at Daytona International Speedway that he doesn’t even get to keep in the record books. There’s no denying that huge grin on Kligerman’s face when he emerged from Connor Zilisch’s No. 88 Chevrolet to grab the checkered flag.
I know, I know. He announced last year that he was retiring from full-time competition. But you aren’t going to convince me that he wouldn’t at least consider taking on one of Kaulig’s five trucks. His last couple of full-time seasons were run in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, and that schedule is longer and a little more grueling at 33 races versus the 25 in the Truck Series, for which he already runs part-time with Henderson Motorsports.
Add in that Kligerman is no stranger to Ram, having run one while he was with the now-defunct Brad Keselowski Racing. Even if he doesn’t end up full-time with the organization, it wouldn’t be at all surprising to see him part-time and helping the team expand its notes.
Grant Enfinger
This one feels like a no-brainer. How many of you really paid attention to CR7 Motorsports when Grant Enfinger made nine starts with the organization in 2021, when he split a ride at ThorSport Racing with Christian Eckes?
“It is a demotion to be running part-time but you know, it’s part of it,” Enfinger said after the news he was splitting the ride with Eckes came out. “It’s part of rolling with the punches.”
And roll with the punches is exactly what Enfinger did. Although he missed the second race of the season, Enfinger pieced together a full schedule for the remainder of the year with CR7 filling the gaps when Eckes was in the ThorSport truck. He scored three top 10s in those nine starts with CR7 and would have made the playoffs if not for missing one race when he didn’t have another ride to run.
Fast forward to the end of the 2023 season, when GMS Racing announced it would be shuttering its Truck Series operations, and Enfinger, who had spent the 2022 and 2023 seasons with GMS, suddenly found himself once again without a ride.
Enter CR7 once again, only this time it was full-time. And Enfinger has been impressive, taking an also-ran truck team and turning it into a championship contender. Last season, he posted two wins, eight top fives and 13 top 10s, and he finished fourth in the championship standings when he ended the year with a fifth-place run at Phoenix Raceway.
Once again, he’s in the playoffs in 2025, this time seeded seventh when the Truck Series gets to Darlington Raceway this weekend. While Enfinger has yet to visit victory lane, he’s sitting on six top fives and 11 top 10s with seven races to go. If Enfinger has been able to help build this team into a yearly championship contender, imagine what he’d do with a manufacturer-backed ride.
The biggest question mark with him, though, is whether his loyalties to owner Codie Rohrbaugh keep him where he’s at next season.
Kaden Honeycutt
Released from his Niece Motorsports ride earlier this season, it seems like Kaden Honeycutt should be a leading candidate for one of these open trucks. After all, Niece did say he “signed a contract to race with a different Truck Series organization and OEM in 2026″ in its statement in early August.
Yes, I’m aware that FOX Sports’ Bob Pockrass reported it’s pretty likely Honeycutt lands with TRICON Garage and Toyota for the 2026 season, but what if Dodge and Kaulig were the other OEM all along?
He’s finishing out this season behind the wheel of Stewart Friesen‘s No. 52 Chevrolet and still running for the driver’s championship. What’s more is despite having to scramble to find somewhere to finish what was supposed to be a full-time season with Niece, Honeycutt has already exceeded last season’s performance.
Honeycutt has 10 top 10s this season compared to six last year. Sure, he’s run more races this season than he did in the entirety of 2024, so it makes sense that he would have more top 10s, but when you consider that he finished inside the top 10 in 43% of his races in 2024 compared to 56% as of this point in the season, you can see that he’s running stronger.
Harrison Burton
He spent three years running in the Cup Series but posted just one win (Daytona 2024), two top fives and six top 10s in a combined 108 career starts, and now Harrison Burton finds himself in the Xfinity Series with AM Racing. So far this season, he’s got just two top fives and nine top 10s as the series inches closer to its playoffs.
Considering the success Burton saw during his Xfinity stint with Joe Gibbs Racing during the 2020 and 2021 seasons, moving to Cup clearly wasn’t the right move for him at that point in his career. Add in that AM Racing isn’t one of the stronger teams in the Xfinity Series, and the 24-year-old needs something to shake up his career.
Why not take a step back to the Truck Series, especially to be with a team that’s going to have manufacturer support in Ram?
We’ve seen something similar with John Hunter Nemechek. Once he returned to the Truck Series, he spent two full-time seasons racking up seven more wins, 22 top fives and 31 top 10s in a combined 45 starts. Now he’s in his second season back in the Cup Series, and Burton could easily find the same kind of success by taking a step back to move his career forward.
Shared Ride
You’d have to believe that much like Niece, TRICON and Spire Motorsports have this season, there’s going to be at least one truck that’s shared by a handful of drivers who aren’t competing for the driver’s championship.
Not only could Kaulig use it as a chance to audition up-and-coming drivers who could join the organization in the future, this truck would also be the perfect place for the organization to give its current stable of drivers a little extra seat time at a track they struggle with, even if there’s not much that can be translated between running a truck versus an Xfinity or Cup car.
It also opens up the chance to have multiple different drivers share their feedback to help the team through what will likely be some inevitable growing pains as Ram returns to NASCAR.
