Motorsports
Teenage star, Beavers on wheels take center stage at Portland’s final NASCAR Xfinity race
Young phenom Connor Zilisch continued his domination Saturday at Portland International Raceway, securing his NASCAR Xfinity rookie record eighth win despite missing turn one twice late in the race.
It culminated more than two hours of action as powerful engines roared and stock cars thundered their way around the road course. There was a car completely painted in Oregon State orange-and-black and a large Beaver logo on the hood.
In the end, despite the rookie star winning again, fans left the Pacific Office Automation 147 feeling a little empty, as it’s the last NASCAR Xfinity race at PIR for the time being.
NASCAR’s second-tier series has raced at Portland since 2022, but it is off the next year’s schedule. A street course at Naval Base Coronado in San Diego, Calif. has been added and PIR road course dropped on the 2026 series schedule.
There are rising stars, competitive racers and veterans in the Xfinity Series, which changes to the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series next season. They’ll be racing elsewhere next year, not at PIR.
“Very sad,” said Brenda Nelson, a Friends of PIR member from Central Oregon. She volunteered for the race along with more than 100 others, including friend Susan Thorn of Battle Ground, Washington. They attend races every week at PIR, and seeing NASCAR depart hurts.
“Wheels going around — doesn’t take much for us (to be excited). Fast cars, the sounds … and this is family,” Thorn said. Nelson said it’s a strong “culture” event.
“Really unfortunate,” said Kaden Fritzler of Roseburg. “It was the only (big) NASCAR event in the Northwest.”
Indeed, Hit Machine and Wrangler played live music and classic country rock and more blared over the loudspeakers — “Sweet Home Alabama” and the like. American flags were aplenty, although not visible “Trump” stuff. No official attendance was given, but RV spots appeared to be full, first-turn “Shelton’s Corner” seating had plenty of inhabitants and pit road plenty of spectators — although front-stretch grandstands had many vacancies.
There was an interesting subplot to Saturday’s race, as Dean Thompson drove the No. 26 Thompson Pipe Group GR Supra Toyota Camry of Sam Hunt Racing that was adorned with Oregon State University colors and a huge Beaver logo on the hood. It’s the third NASCAR partnership with an NCAA school this year.
Thompson and a show car made an appearance in Corvallis at Reser Stadium’s Parker Plaza on Friday.
“As Oregon’s statewide university, we’re proud to welcome NASCAR back to Portland and share our pride with the many Beaver Nation NASCAR fans,” said Rob Odom, OSU’s vice president of University Relations and Marketing
“I was all for it,” said Thompson, 24 and from Anaheim, California. “I like the logo — it’s a lot of fun. There have been a lot of people talking about it.”
Thompson, who has six top-10 finishes and decent races on road courses, qualified 22nd and appeared to lose power on lap 13 and then went off the track on lap 16 (while eight laps behind Zilisch). He finished 32nd in the 37-car field, seven laps down.
VIP tickets were raffled off at the Corvallis event, and they went to a big Beaver fan (Kaden Fritzler) and a Washington Husky (his father, Brad Fritzler, of Corvallis). They got to meet Thompson and crew and be around the car and pits.
“It’s great to have Oregon State representation in NASCAR,” said Kaden, who wore an OSU hat to the race. “It’s a great way to make fans — sponsoring a NASCAR ride.”
Count Brad among the disappointed NASCAR fans with the Portland race departure. He and his son have attended three of the four PIR events.
“They are some of the best drivers in the world,” he said. “Fender to fender, bumper to bumper, bare-knuckle racing.”
Another fan, who only went by “Scott,” might have said it best: “I was hoping it would go the other way — and Cup (Series) and maybe the Trucks would come to Portland.”
Zilisch, 19 and from Charlotte, N.C,, piloting the No. 88 Weathertech Chevy Camaro of JR Motorsports — Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s team, had the series wins record of eight in sight. Zilisch, leading for the first 68 laps, faced a late challenge when he overshot the first turn after a restart with seven laps remaining. Despite going off track, he recovered through ‘Shelton’s Corner’ to regain second place.
On another yellow flag and restart with a two-lap overtime, Zilisch sprinted ahead of Hill but missed the first turn again but he quickly righted himself and came out of “Shelton’s Corner” with the lead and went on to win his eighth race.
“It’s not really slow (corner),” Zilisch said, of his first turn mishaps and recoveries. “As soon as I hit the brakes, I just committed to it. Worked out. I wasn’t really planning on it, but last resort, you gotta do what you gotta do.”
He has signed to race in the Cup Series for Trackhouse Racing in 2026.
The win came 21 days after a mishap at Watkins Glen, in which he climbed out of his cockpit in victory lane and promptly got his feet caught in window netting and fell hard to the ground. He had surgery on a broken collarbone, but he started the next race at Daytona — and substitute driver Parker Kligerman finished it for Zilisch’s seventh win.
“It hurt, but it hurts so good,” he said, of the collarbone.
Zilisch won the first two stages of the 75-lap race at PIR before the late restart mishaps, and goes into the series’ final regular-season race, before the series playoffs, with the points lead over Justin Allgaier and Sam Mayer, who each had late issues and fell back in the field. Allgaier is second and Mayer third in points.
“It’s got a W on the hood,” Zilisch said, of his sponsor’s initial. “No better thing to do than win with it.
“So proud of this 88 team. It’s been such a fun year.”
Briefly
- Zilisch was the top qualifier, just missing Mayer’s track record for stock cars last year (73.3751 seconds, 96.654 mph) on the 1.97-mile, 12-turn road course.
- Zilisch, who has won five road course races, had tied Christopher Bell (2018) for series rookie wins in a season.
- Zilisch tied the series record for consecutive top-5 finishes (13).
- No serious incidents happened in the race, save for a few drivers going off track. The stock cars cut all the corners, too, going partly off pavement, unlike the more fragile IndyCar machines.
- Greg Biffle, the retired NASCAR Cup driver who grew up in Camas, competed in Friday’s ARCA Menards Series West race. Biffle, who won 19 Cup races during his career, placed fourth. William Sawalich won, and then performed well the next day in the Xfinity Series race.
- PIR race winners in the Xfinity Series were Zilisch (2025), Shane van Gisbergen (2024), Cole Custer (2023) and A.J. Allmendinger (2022).
- It’s not official, as IndyCar Series hasn’t announced its 2026 schedule, but PIR will remain on the circuit, sources say.
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Motorsports
ARCA Menards Series Kicks Off 2026 Season with Daytona Pre-Race Practice Over 70 Drivers, 40 Teams Expected to Participate – Speedway Digest
Over 70 drivers are expected to hit the high banks as the 2026 ARCA Menards Series season fires up with its annual Pre-Race Practice at Daytona International Speedway on Friday and Saturday, January 9 and 10.
The entry list for the two days of track activity leading into the season-opening Daytona ARCA 200 is led by pre-season championship favorites Isabella Robusto and Thomas Annunziata, both of whom will be campaigning full-time for Nitro Motorsports. Nitro, led by team principal Nick Tucker, will also field cars for 2024 Daytona winner Gus Dean and 2024 Talladega winner Jake Finch, as well as ARCA Menards Series West winner Jake Bollman. Youngsters Jade Avedisian and Gavan Boschele will also make laps in a Nitro Motorsports Toyota at the pre-race practice.
Reigning championship team Pinnacle Racing Group, who took Brenden “Butterbean” Queen to the title in 2025, will not be chasing the ARCA Menards Series drivers’ championship in 2026 but the team’s Chevrolets will be loaded with talent at Daytona, with drivers Jack Wood, team manager Shane Huffman’s son Landon S. Huffman, Carson Brown, and Taylor Reimer set to make laps. Brown, just 17 years old, will compete for the ARCA Menards Series East championship in 2026.
KLAS Motorsports will be at Daytona with two cars for the first time, as perennial contender and fan favorite Andy Jankowiak looks for his first career series victory with teammate Glen Reen alongside. YouTube superstar Garrett Mitchell, known to his fans as Cletus McFarland, will also return for his second attempt at Daytona in a Ford prepared by Rette Jones Racing.
Former Daytona runner-up finisher and 2024 pole winner Willie Mullins is expected to participate, along with 2012 pole winner and five-time Daytona top-five finisher Sean Corr. Tim Richmond, who started on the front row and finished a career-best fifth at Daytona in 2024, will be on track, as well as Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota drivers Max Reaves and Gio Ruggiero in addition to 2025 ARCA Menards East champion Isaac Kitzmiller.
Andy Hillenburg’s Fast Track High Performance Racing Team will field entries for Presley Sorah, Ed Pompa, Ohio’s Austin Hill, and Takuma Koga in addition to six drivers participating in the ARCA Menards Series Road to Daytona program. Hudson Bulger, Albert Francis, Robbie Kennealy, Kody King, Craig Lutz, and Brad May will all spend half a day on track in a car prepared by Hillenburg, a two-time ARCA Menards Series winner at Daytona in 1995 and 1997.
Live timing and scoring data will be available throughout the two days of track activity via ARCARacing.com.
The 2026 ARCA Menards Series formally launches its 74th season, as it has since 1964, at Daytona International Speedway with practice on Thursday, February 12, Pole Qualifying on Friday, February 13, and the 63rd Annual Daytona ARCA 200 set for 12 noon ET on Saturday, February 14. The race will be televised live on FOX and broadcast nationwide on select affiliates of the MRN Radio Network. Live timing & scoring for all on track sessions is available at ARCARacing.com.
ARCA PR
Hendrick Motorsports has published a classy response following the announcement on Tuesday that NASCAR commissioner Steve Phelps would be stepping down at the end of January after 21 years with the organization.
Phelps’ announcement came in the wake of the antitrust lawsuit, which was filed by Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin’s 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports against NASCAR, with both teams refusing to sign the new 2024 charter agreement, alleging “monopolistic” behavior on NASCAR’s part.
The lawsuit, filed in October 2024, ultimately went to court in Charlotte, North Carolina, where a series of damning messages from Phelps were unearthed, seemingly sealing his fate. Ultimately, the case was settled after eight days, with Evergreen charters being the major talking point of the deal.
Responding to Phelps’ decision, Hendrick published a statement later that day, saying: “We thank Steve Phelps for his leadership and dedication to NASCAR over the past two decades.
“He helped our sport navigate opportunities, challenges and periods of significant change while positioning it for the future. We appreciate his service and wish him all the best in his next chapter.”
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The last month has been tough on Phelps after some of his irate messages during charter negotiations came to light.
The most brutal comments of all came in a chain of messages between Phelps and Chief Media & Revenue Officer Brian Herbst during charter negotiations with teams in 2023. At this point, NASCAR was also negotiating what turned out to be a blockbuster seven-year $7.7 billion broadcasting rights deal with Fox, NBC, Amazon Prime Video, and Warner Bros. Discovery.
Phelps specifically aimed his frustrations at 80-year-old Hall of Fame team owner Richard Childress, commenting: “Childress is an idiot. If they don’t like the state of the sport, sell your charter and get out,” before adding: “Did I mention Childress was an idiot?”
Later, Phelps would go on to suggest: “If he’s that angry (and apparently he is), sign your charter extension and sell. He’s not smart, is a dinosaur, and a malcontent. He’s worth a couple hundred million dollars — every dollar associated with NASCAR in some fashion. Total a–clown.”
The reveal of these messages not only prompted Childress to threaten legal action, but also drew the ire of major sponsor Bass Pro Shops in a public undressing of NASCAR via a letter released on social media.
The following day, a settlement was reached between the teams and NASCAR, which included evergreen charters and the reinstatement of both 23XI and FRM’s six full-time rides as chartered entrants. It is also believed that NASCAR would have had to shell out tens of millions of dollars to settle the case with both teams.
Fast forward to January 6, and Phelps announced he was stepping down, explaining in a statement: “As a lifelong race fan, it gives me immense pride to have served as NASCAR’s first Commissioner and to lead our great sport through so many incredible challenges, opportunities and firsts over my 20 years.
“Our sport is built on the passion of our fans, the dedication of our teams and partners and the commitment of our wonderful employees. It has been an honor to help synthesize the enthusiasm of long-standing NASCAR stakeholders with that of new entrants to our ecosystem, such as media partners, auto manufacturers, track operators and incredible racing talent.
As I embark on new pursuits in sports and other industries, I want to thank the many colleagues, friends and especially the fans that have played such an important and motivational role in my career. Words cannot fully convey the deep appreciation I have for this life-changing experience, for the trust of the France family and for having a place in NASCAR’s amazing history.”
Two Event Entitlements Included in Multiyear Deal, Partnership Expansion with Hitachi Energy
SOUTH BOSTON, VA…..Hitachi Energy has expanded its partnership with South Boston Speedway to become the title sponsor of South Boston Speedway’s Late Model Stock Car Division, which will be known as the Hitachi Energy Late Model Stock Car Division starting in 2026.
In addition, Hitachi Energy will sponsor two events at the speedway in both 2026 and 2027 as part of a two-year agreement.
“Hitachi Energy is proud to extend our partnership with South Boston Speedway by sponsoring the Late Model Stock Car Division for the next two years, along with two marquee events,” said Ryland Clark, Senior Corporate Real Estate Facility & Capital Projects Manager for Hitachi Energy.
“South Boston Speedway is a cornerstone of our community, and we’re excited to support the drivers, fans, and families who make this place so special. Investing in local traditions like SoBo strengthens the connection between our team, our neighbors, and the future of Halifax County.”
Hitachi Energy has played a big role at South Boston Speedway including its sponsorship of the lucrative Championship Loyalty Bonus Program which provided awards for eligible drivers in South Boston Speedway’s NASCAR-sanctioned racing divisions.
In addition, South Boston Speedway and Hitachi Energy partnered to collect donations of non-perishable food items to be donated to the Feed Halifax organization at the track’s CARS Tour event in September. Each non-perishable item donated earned a fan one chance at being chosen to wave the green flag for the start of one of the two late model features that night. The Feed Halifax organization set up a trailer at the speedway during the event to collect donations.
South Boston Speedway and Hitachi Energy will revisit the Feed Halifax initiative for 2026.
“We are very appreciative of Hitachi Energy’s partnership with the speedway,” said South Boston Speedway General Manager Brandon Brown, “and are excited about Hitachi Energy extending its partnership to include becoming the title sponsor of our Late Model Stock Car Division and sponsoring two of our events for the next two years.
“Hitachi Energy is a tremendous supporter of the South Boston-Halifax County community through its partnerships with community events and its donations and assistance to community organizations and schools. We thank Hitachi Energy for its support and bringing a new level of excitement and interest in racing at South Boston Speedway for competitors and fans alike.”
The Late Model Stock Car Division is South Boston Speedway’s featured racing division, with the upcoming 2026 season being the 43rd year of the division being the track’s feature division. There have been 103 different winners in 757 NASCAR-sanctioned Late Model Stock Car Division races at South Boston Speedway.
One of the closest championship points battle in the track’s history was waged in the Late Model Stock Car Division this season, with Peyton Sellers of Danville, Virginia winning a record eighth South Boston Speedway title by a narrow two-point margin over Trevor Ward of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Sellers broke the previous record of seven South Boston Speedway titles held by David Blankenship of Mosely, Virginia which had stood for 27 years.
South Boston Speedway will open its 2026 season on Saturday afternoon, March 21, with one of the biggest events of the season, the SMART Modified Tour’s King of the Modifieds event. The track’s Late Model Stock Car Division competitors will be in action as well.
The first event of the season to feature all four of the track’s regular NASCAR-sanctioned racing divisions will be on Saturday afternoon, April 4.
South Boston Speedway’s 2026 season schedule can be found on the speedway’s website, www.southbostonspeedway.com. Additional information about South Boston Speedway is available on the speedway’s website and through the track’s social media channels. Information may also be obtained by calling the speedway at 434-572-4947 or toll free at 1-877-440-1540 during regular business hours.
Source: South Boston Speedway
Updated Jan. 7, 2026, 1:07 p.m. ET
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia — In 1966, France’s 24 Hours of Le Mans put Ford on the map as one of the world’s premier sports car manufacturers. Sixty years later, Ford is determined to make its mark again — this time as one of the world’s premier off-road makers by taking on the world at the 14-day, 2026 Dakar Rally in the desert of Saudi Arabia.
Ford v Ferrari meets Ford v Toyota.
The Japanese manufacturer, builder of the internationally-ubiquitous Hilux trucks, has dominated this race in recent years, just as Ferrari dominated Le Mans in the early 1960s.
Ford Racing is determined to dethrone Toyota at the end of this Jan. 3-17 race and, in the process, establish its Raptor truck performance badge (synonymous with its F-150, Bronco and Ranger bruisers) as a global icon just as Le Mans made GT40 an international sports car icon (ultimately, GT40 became a movie as well with its Oscar-winning turn).
“For any brand wanting to stake a claim to owning off-road racing, Dakar stands out head and shoulders above all others,” said Global Director of Ford Racing Mark Rushbrook. “Over two relentless weeks and thousands of competitive kilometers . . . there is no place to hide. That is why the 2026 Dakar Rally represents such a meaningful moment for Ford.”
Dakar is one of a series of meaningful moments for the Dearborn automaker’s racing division in 2026 as it has unleashed a historic assault on the world’s top motorsports series, including Formula One (with Red Bull), Le Mans (with Mustang) and off-road (Raptor). Come 2027, it will also be back at Le Mans for the first time since its 1960s dominance in the premier Hypercar class.
After two years getting its feet wet in Dakar — scoring a podium in ‘25 — Ford has come into the Saudi desert this January with an army of firepower.
Eight Raptor T1+ trucks — four of them full factory teams — piloted by some of the world’s most renowned off-road aces have entered the race’s most-capable Ultimate class. Pilots include names like four-time Dakar winner Carlos Sainz Sr., two-time winner Nani Roma, King of the Hammers champ Mitch Guthrie, Rallycross World Champion Matthias Ekström, world rally ace Martin Prokop, and Le Mans winner Romain Dumas. They will take on the best from Toyota as well as teams from international off-road racing teams Buggyra, Dacia and Century.
Le Mans 1960s GT40 aces AJ Foyt, Bruce McLaren, Chris Amon and Dan Gurney would be impressed.
The world standard in off-road motorsport since 1979, Dakar got its name from the original race run from Paris to Dakar, Senegal. For the last five years, it’s been held across Saudi Arabia’s demanding terrain. It’s a test of human as well as vehicle endurance as drivers and their navigators riding shotgun must traverse the desert at breakneck speeds while doing their own repairs and enduring extreme weather conditions.
While carrying the Raptor badge, Ford’s Ultimate-class trucks share little with their production siblings.
These are dune buggies on steroids — tube-frame monsters with high-horsepower V-8 engines, huge all-terrain tires, and 14 inches of Fox-shock suspension travel — capable of running at 100-plus mph speeds over a gnarly landscape that looks like something out of the Netflix hit “Stranger Things” dystopia.
The four factory entries — developed with UK-based engineering company M-Sport — are state-of-the-art cyborgs while the four factory-supported buggies are year-old beasts. It’s an arrangement not unlike Ferrari F1 and the Formula One customer teams it supports with last-gen engines.
“Those privateer entries are a deliberate part of how we grow the Raptor ecosystem globally — sharing technology, data and durability across customer teams who are pushing the same hardware in the same extreme conditions,” said Rushbrook. “That depth strengthens the program, accelerates learning and reinforces the credibility of the Raptor platform.”
That ethic is part of a Ford business model to make money in motorsports — rather than just race for headline glory as it did in the ‘60s. The Raptor T1 program follows Ford’s Mustang GT3, GT4 and Dark Horse Challenge series efforts where Ford sells GT-class race cars to teams globally.
“Ford Racing today is also very much a business, and a growing one,” Rushbrook said pre-race. “We’ve proven across our Mustang programs what true race-to-road integration can deliver. That same philosophy now fully extends to Raptor and our off-road portfolio.”
In the brutal conditions of Dakar the private teams also are contenders to win outright. Just three days into Dakar on Jan. 6, for example, the private Orlen Jipocar Ford team driven by Prokop was second to the Guthrie-piloted factory effort as Ford entries swept the top five positions, with Toyota a distant ninth.
Ford’s early stage success (Dakar competitors must prove themselves over 13 stages totaling 5,000 miles) was born of teething years in 2024-25. Just as Ford struggled to build reliable Dakar warriors, so did its Le Man assault demand patience before its 1966 breakthrough.
“Our earlier years at Dakar were about building knowledge: understanding the race, the rhythms, the terrain and the operational demands,” said Rushbrook. “The phase we enter now is different. The objective is no longer to validate the program, the objective is to contend for overall victory.”
Whatever the outcome of this year’s Dakar Rally, Ford’s racing efforts are consistent with the history of a brand that has used racing for marketing and engineering excellence since Henry Ford won the Sweepstakes Race in 1901 — securing investors for his fledgling Ford Motor Company.
“Racing has served as our most demanding engineering laboratory and one of our most powerful brand amplifiers,” said Rushbrook.
It’s a philosophy that is also at the root of Ferrari and Porsche — and has recently taken hold at General Motors Co., which is also competing in F1 and Le Mans.
For all brands, the searing heat of motorsports translates directly into better road cars — putting cutting-edge tech to the test to improve performance and reliability, not to mention developing better engineers.
Ford’s Dakar ambitions follow successful off-road efforts in North America at the famed Baja 1000 and King of the Hammers competitions in Mexico and California, respectively. Factory teams have won production GT classes with F-150 Raptors and Broncos.
Similar production classes are also in play in international rally races like Dakar, where brands as diverse as Range Rover and Honda Powersports (motorcycles) compete across the desert.
But like Ford v Ferrari in the 1960s, Ford’s Dakar goals have started at the top of the sport.
Like Le Mans and the World Endurance Championship, Dakar is the jewel of a year-long race series, the World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC). Ford and Toyota will continue to exchange blows across the world in Portugal (March), Argentina (May), and Morocco (October) before the Abu Dhabi finale in November.
That’s the same month as Ford/Red Bull wraps the F1 season in the streets of Abu Dhabi.
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or @HenryEPayne.
After decades of building some of the most respected engines in the world, Cummins Inc. is officially returning to NASCAR’s national spotlight in a big way. The global power technology leader has signed on as the full-season primary sponsor of Brenden Queen and the No. 12 Ram 1500 for the 2026 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, fielded by Kaulig Racing.
For Mopar fans and racing enthusiasts alike, this partnership hits on multiple levels. It reunites two legendary American brands—Cummins and Ram—on one of the most visible motorsports stages in the country, while also backing one of stock car racing’s fastest-rising young drivers.
Cummins branding will appear on the primary livery of Queen’s No. 12 Ram 1500 for every Truck Series race in 2026. The deal represents the latest chapter in a relationship between Cummins and Ram that dates back to 1989, when the first Cummins-powered Dodge Ram rolled off the line. Since then, more than 3.5 million Ram trucks have been powered by Cummins diesel engines, setting the benchmark for durability and capability in the heavy-duty pickup segment.
That deep-rooted history makes this return to NASCAR feel less like a marketing move and more like a homecoming.
“Cummins has racing in its DNA,” said Brett Merritt, Vice President and President, Engine Business, Cummins. “From Clessie Cummins winning the first Indianapolis 500 as a crew member to our leadership in commercial power, we’ve always pushed the limits of what’s possible. Brenden Queen represents that same spirit – talented, hardworking, and full of momentum. Partnering with both Kaulig Racing and Ram provides the opportunity for us to continue to write our motorsport legacy.”
Queen, known to fans as “Butterbean,” enters 2026 as one of the most talked-about prospects in the sport. The 28-year-old Chesapeake, Virginia native put together a dominant run in the ARCA Menards Series, earning eight wins and finishing in the top five in 17 of 20 races en route to a championship. That success opened the door to five NASCAR Xfinity Series starts late in 2025, where Queen delivered strong, confidence-building performances against deeper competition.
Those results made him the first driver announced as part of Ram’s highly anticipated return to the Truck Series, and now he’ll carry one of the most recognizable names in American engineering on his truck.
To Queen, the opportunity is both humbling and motivating. Driving a Ram-backed truck with Cummins on the hood connects modern NASCAR ambition with decades of truck and diesel heritage that fans instantly recognize.
For Kaulig Racing, landing Cummins as a full-season primary sponsor is a major statement of intent. The organization has built its reputation through competitive Xfinity and Cup programs, and 2026 marks an aggressive push to establish itself as a consistent contender in the Truck Series.
“We couldn’t be more excited to welcome Cummins to the Kaulig Racing family,” said Chris Rice, Chief Executive Officer of Kaulig Racing. “Their engineering excellence and commitment to innovation are a perfect match for our vision. Brenden is an exceptional talent, and we’re building a program around him that we believe can compete for wins and make a playoff run right away.”
The No. 12 Cummins Ram 1500 will officially hit the track at the 2026 season opener at Daytona International Speedway on Friday, February 13. Under the lights at Daytona, one of America’s most iconic engine builders will once again be part of NASCAR’s national conversation—this time paired with a new generation of driver talent and a familiar Ram badge.
For Cummins, Ram, and Kaulig Racing, 2026 isn’t just about sponsorship. It’s about legacy, performance, and proving that American engineering still belongs at the front of the field.
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