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- Kaulig Could Be the Place to Be, Says Dale Jr.; Briscoe Bets Big on His Championship Run and More
Kaulig Could Be the Place to Be, Says Dale Jr.; Briscoe Bets Big on His Championship Run and More
Jerry Bonkowski
September 06, 2025
Welcome to Hoot in the Oval — your all-access pass to everything NASCAR. From Denny’s clutch finishes to Ross’ wild moves, Chase Elliott fandom to Bubba’s bold takes — we’ve got the stories that fuel the track and the timeline. Fast, loud, unfiltered. Buckle up, y’all. 🏁
The latest edition of our newsletter covers:
How Kaulig Racing’s recent developments could spice things up for drivers in the Truck Series
Confident Chase Briscoe looks to change his perception among fans
Hendrick Motorsports needs to ‘stop the bleeding’ after Darlington letdown
🏁Inside the Oval
Dale Earnhardt Jr. Believes Drivers Should Target the Kaulig Seat After Truck Deal With Ram
Even though he’s been a lifelong Chevrolet and General Motors fan, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is pulling for Dodge and its Ram brand when it makes its return debut to NASCAR next season in the Camping World Truck Series.
NASCAR and Dodge have not said anything about it. But it is clear that Ram Racing, along with Kaulig next season, has the potential to act as a test run for Dodge to make a full return to the Xfinity and Cup Series, perhaps as early as 2027 or 2028.
Earnhardt said on last week’s edition of The Dale Jr. Download podcast that there will be more than an ample supply of drivers who want to park themselves in a Kaulig seat next year.
In other words, those who get in one of Kaulig’s trucks—and there are reports that there could be as many as five Kaulig Rams next season—will get NASCAR’s version of America’s Got Talent’s golden ticket.
Will the Ram be competitive right from the start? That remains to be seen. But Earnhardt has some solid advice to Kaulig on how to go about building an equally solid team in as short a time frame as possible.
“Get yourself a sure-fire, can’t miss veteran who can help you build the team, tell you where your trucks are and what you need and what you’re feeling,” Earnhardt said. That’s Phase One. And then comes Phase Two, the way Junior sees it.
“You bring in some grassroots young guy that needs that opportunity that everybody would be excited about, and you kind of have a mix [of other drivers] in between.” If you recall, Junior’s advice is very similar to the way Dodge made its initial return to the Cup Series in 2001.
Ray Evernham, who had served as crew chief for three of Jeff Gordon’s four championships, needed about 18 months to bring the then-Dodge Intrepid to the Cup Series.
Evernham chose former Cup champ — and 15-time NASCAR Most Popular Driver — Bill Elliott (yep, Chase’s father) in as the seasoned veteran and gave the proverbial golden ticket to Casey Atwood. Unfortunately, Atwood never met expectations and was replaced by Jeremy Mayfield in 2002.
Kaulig has not announced who its drivers will be—but you can almost bet that at least a couple of announcements will be coming during the current Truck Series playoffs, most likely the week of the season-ending race in Phoenix.
But Earnhardt is definitely bullish on the prospects of the Ram and Kaulig in 2026. “Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if they come right out of the gate [and are immediately competitive],” Earnhardt said. He even went so far as to predict, “They could win Daytona. They could come right out of the gate very competitive.”
🎙️ Hoot’s Radio Chatter
Chase Briscoe Makes Case for Being More Than a Sleeper in the Championship Hunt
Chase Briscoe won at Darlington to become the first of three drivers who would advance into the Round of 12 quarterfinals of the NASCAR Cup playoffs with a victory. And he wants everyone to know something.
Briscoe is not a dark horse, but a legitimate contender for this year’s NASCAR Cup championship. He not only won the Southern 500 at Darlington for the second consecutive year, but he also leads the Cup points standings heading into the race at World Wide Technology Raceway. All this, while several drivers who were expected to kick off things on the right foot at Darlington did not.
Take Joey Logano, for instance. The defending Cup champion, who has won the Cup crown twice in the previous three seasons, is below the cutoff line to advance to the Round of 12.
To be fair, Logano is only three points below the cutoff line, something he could dramatically change at World Wide Technology Raceway or the following Sunday in the concluding race of the first round at Bristol Motor Speedway. Four drivers will be eliminated after the checkered flag falls there.
Several others did not get off on the right foot at Darlington. While they’re not necessarily in must-win situations heading into WWTR, they do need to rebound with at least a top-five finish there.
That includes—in inverse order—Shane van Gisbergen (12th in the playoff standings), Chase Elliott (11th), and arguably one of the biggest surprises, Christopher Bell (10th). But getting back to Briscoe, he’s tired of being NASCAR’s Rodney Dangerfield and not getting any respect for his talent and potential to possibly finish this season as Cup champion.
“I feel like the playoffs really round out well for me statistically,” Briscoe said confidently. “The Round of 8 [semifinals] is the hard one just because you do have Talladega in there.” But if he can get out of Talladega in good shape, it’s going to be a great run for him, Briscoe added.
“I definitely think if we can get there, I feel confident going to Phoenix, too,” he said. “It’s just a matter of putting 10 weeks together. Obviously, we started Week One the way we needed to. I know they’re not going to all come as easy as they did [on Sunday].”
“But certainly, if we can continue to bring the speed and execute and be on pit road the way we were [at Darlington], it makes it where I feel like we start even internally realizing we’re definitely capable of this [winning the championship]. Hopefully, other people will, too,” added Briscoe.
That’s not a dark horse talking. That’s a potential champion talking, for sure.
🏁 Trackside Trivia
Gateway yet to have a Toyota driver win in Cup Races
At the WWT Raceway, popularly known as Gateway, the three NASCAR Cup Series races held so far (since the track joined the top-tier schedule in 2022) have been won by Joey Logano (2022), Kyle Busch (2023), and Austin Cindric (2024). Both Logano and Cindric drive Fords while Busch wheels a Chevrolet.
The 2023 win at the track was Kyle Busch’s last victory in the Cup Series. The RCR driver's winless streak has reached 83 races.
With Team Penske’s experience on short, flatter tracks such as Gateway, will it be Ryan Blaney who rounds out the team’s success at the venue? Or will we see a potential championship challenger from the Toyota camp, such as Chase Briscoe or Christopher Bell, take the heat to its rivals?
🗣️ Pit Politics
Dale Earnhardt Jr. Expects Rick Hendrick to Stop the Bleeding After Shocking Darlington Showing
One thing Rick Hendrick never does is panic. When his organization faces adversity, the so-called “Mr. H” uses his calm approach, patience, and strategy to turn things around. In essence, he turns what may start as lemons into sweet-tasting lemonade.
The debacle at Darlington is behind him (if you need a reminder, Hendrick’s four drivers finished 17th (Chase Elliott), 19th (Kyle Larson), 21st (William Byron), and 31st (Alex Bowman).
So it's time for Team Hendrick to circle the wagons and come up with a successful strategy for this Sunday’s second race of the playoffs at World Wide Technology Raceway, just outside St. Louis.
They are keen to rebound. And someone who knows all about how Hendrick rebounds is Dale Earnhardt Jr., who raced for him for almost a decade, from 2008 to 2017. That’s why Junior said on this week’s Dale Junior Download that he isn’t worried about his former team. That's primarily because Junior knows his former boss isn’t worried either.
“Hendrick Motorsports struggled [at Darlington],” Earnhardt said. “I don't expect to see that to happen [this] week. You know why? Rick Hendrick has a unique ability to call everybody in on the carpet and ask for things to get better, and they always get better.”
Earnhardt saw his share of collective misfortune one week for Team Hendrick turn into an outstanding, dominant week the next. And he sees that same scenario heading into WWTR.
“I would say that [Team Heindrick is a] kind of organization that just expects to win, expects to be badass, expects to succeed,” Earnhardt said. “Imagine going into that Monday morning meeting, right? And the whole place [is] getting together and you're just all like, ‘What the F? What are we doing?’”
“On top of that, you put the big boss man in the room and ain't nobody talking. It's quiet. And he's probably going to say the first words in the meeting, and he's probably going to say the last words in the meeting. And in some point, he's going to tell everybody to figure it out.
“There'll be department heads in there, he'll challenge the engine shop, he'll challenge everybody to make a gain,” added Junior.
Hendrick has been a Cup team owner for over 40 years. Not surprisingly, one of the biggest keys to his organization’s collective success is Hendrick’s preparation, something he expects all his employees to also do.
“He'll have his information, he'll have his facts, he'll be able to back it up, and he just has a way of making everybody go grab a little bit more gear, go dig a little bit harder. When you think that there's nothing else to find, there's another two or 5% to learn, they go and get it," said Dale Jr.
“Nobody stays on top forever, and even the best teams will have really, really rough days. But I've been in that room after a race like that, Rick will say what he has to say, and it'll influence you to want to go out there and make sure that you're not the weak link and you're not the reason why it doesn't succeed the next race.
“He’s not loud at all. He's super calm. He doesn't get loud, he doesn't raise his voice at all, but it is a very serious, ‘I'm disappointed, and I'm not here to be a loser or failure. That's not what we're about.’ And it’s pretty impactful,” concluded Junior.
🏁 Lap Back in Time: NASCAR Stat of the Year
(One stat. One year. Every edition.)
1954: The Day a Jaguar Beat NASCAR’s Finest
In June 1954, NASCAR hosted its first road course event on an airport runway in Linden, New Jersey. Al Keller won the race driving a Jaguar XK120, making it the first, and for over 50 years, the only victory by a foreign-built car in NASCAR’s top series.
No other foreign manufacturer won again until Toyota broke through in 2008, over five decades later. This race marked NASCAR’s early experimentation with non-oval tracks and showcased how unusual and bold the series was willing to get, even in its formative years.