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Dale Earnhardt Jr. said Dodge‘s return to the Cup Series with Kaulig Racing in 2027 will be a struggle at first, and that the team knows it.
Earnhardt made the comments on a Dirty Mo Media show this week.
Earnhardt: ‘It is going to be a struggle’
“It ain’t going to go well. It is going to be a struggle,” Earnhardt said. “They know that, and they’re not ready for it, but they know it’s going to be part of the process. It’s going to be some tough road. It’s going to be a tough road ahead.”
Earnhardt pointed to Toyota, which joined the Cup Series in 2007 and did not win a race that season. Kyle Busch got Toyota’s first Cup win at Atlanta in March 2008, and Busch won Toyota’s first Cup championship in 2015.
He also said a quick breakthrough could bring its own problems, since rival manufacturers would question whether the new car had an advantage.
A scrappy team
Earnhardt described Kaulig as a scrappy team that gets results but is not yet one of the top organizations in the Cup Series. He put it somewhere between 15th and 25th in the garage.
Kaulig will field two Dodge Chargers in 2027, with AJ Allmendinger and Ty Dillon expected to drive, as Pit This Time reported. Neither has won a Cup race this season.
A fast timeline
Dodge moved its return up from 2028 to 2027 by getting its engines from ECR Engines, which is owned by Richard Childress Racing and also builds Chevrolet engines. NASCAR said this week it will not add charters for Dodge, so Kaulig will run on the two charters it already has, as Pit This Time reported.
Dodge’s history
Dodge left the Cup Series after 2012, the year Brad Keselowski won the championship in a Penske Dodge. Penske moved to Ford in 2013, leaving Dodge without a Cup team.
Earnhardt said he sees a fit between Dodge’s attitude and Kaulig’s scrappy identity, even if the early results are hard to come by.
The 2027 Cup season opens with the Daytona 500 in February. The 2026 finale is Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
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