Dodge will return to the NASCAR Cup Series in 2027 with Kaulig Racing, the manufacturer announced Monday at the 2026 SEMA Show in Las Vegas.
The two-car team will field Dodge Chargers in the manufacturer’s reintroduction to NASCAR’s top level after a 14-year hiatus, following its departure following the 2012 campaign.
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Brad Keselowski won the 2012 NASCAR Cup Series championship driving a Dodge Charger and gave the manufacturer its 217th and most recent victory at the Cup level held at Dover Motor Speedway.
“Dodge’s return to the NASCAR Cup Series is an important milestone for the sport,” said Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR president and CEO. “This commitment demonstrates Dodge’s confidence in our sport and gives fans another reason to be excited about what lies ahead. The partnership between NASCAR, Tim Kuniskis and the entire Stellantis team has been nothing short of phenomenal. They have a deep passion for NASCAR and its ability to showcase the world’s greatest brands, and we can’t wait to see Dodge on the race track for the Daytona 500 and beyond.”
Dodge’s last tenure in the Cup Series ran from 2001 to 2012 with 57 wins during that span. Its return marks the first new manufacturer to enter NASCAR’s top ranks since 2007, when Toyota entered the Cup Series. Stellantis, Dodge’s parent company, re-entered NASCAR in 2026 by partnering with Kaulig Racing in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, in which the organization fielded five full-time trucks and featured stars like three-time Cup champion Tony Stewart, 2010 Daytona 500 and Brickyard 400 champion Jamie McMurray and 2008 Daytona 500 champion Ryan Newman at the steering wheel.
Dodge is on the fast track to return to the NASCAR Cup Series – something Kuniskis, head of Stellantis’ North American brands SRT Performance and Direct Connection, has embraced in the high-octane world of racing.
“Everyone said there was no way we could come back in a year. We said ‘look at this,'” Kuniskis said in a press release. “Sure, we could spend three years planning, testing and perfecting…or we could do all three in real time, on the track. It’s going to be exponentially more difficult that way. But slow has never been part of Dodge’s DNA. LFG.”
Kaulig Racing will serve as the flagship team for both Dodge and Ram, reestablishing “a factory-backed presence on the track” and creating a foundation for the next phase of the company’s commitment to American motorsports, Stellantis said in a press release. Dodge SRT Racing will lead the manufacturer’s return to NASCAR. Dodge SRT Racing also oversees all of the manufacturer’s racing efforts in North America, including NASCAR, NHRA and elsewhere.
Adding a fourth manufacturer alongside Ford, Chevrolet and Toyota has long been a priority for NASCAR executives. Knowing that Dodge will join the Speedweeks grid in 2027 at Daytona International Speedway is an accomplishment that John Probst, president of NASCAR Event Management, is proud of. But he also acknowledged that the work is not finished.
“It’s something we’ve talked about for a long time, and sometimes we talk about it so much and it doesn’t happen that it almost feels like you lose credibility at some point,” Probst told NASCAR.com. “But it’s certainly a proud moment for us, for our industry, to welcome Dodge back. And I think that’s the key: to welcome them back. And I think even through the process of figuring out which OEM (original equipment manufacturer) should we target, there’s never been any doubt that Dodge has always been number one. Dodge belongs here, and it’s good to welcome them back.”
The body approval process for Dodge’s NASCAR Cup Series entries was no different than OEMs’ current submissions for new body panels, Probst added. The difference for Dodge, however, is that there were no previous models to modify.
“When an existing OEM submits a new model or a completely new OEM submits a completely new car, it involves about 18 months of CFD testing and wind tunnel testing processes,” Probst said. “And then once they go into the performance specs box, we go one step further and we get the actual production panels for that car and make sure that with the actual production panels, they’re still in the box. So it’s the exact same process that we did with this one.”
Probst said Dodge and NASCAR have passed the wind tunnel testing portion and the actual production panels are expected to arrive in mid-November, part of the process Probst expects to be a routine checklist item rather than a cause for apprehension.
MORE: Dodge History in NASCAR
In a statement, Stellantis says Kaulig Racing will announce its 2027 driver lineup at Homestead-Miami Speedway, where the NASCAR Cup Series championship will be awarded Sunday (2 p.m. ET, NBC, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Dodge will reveal the race car that Kaulig Racing will use to compete in the NASCAR Cup Series on December 4 during the 2026 Snowball Derby at Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Florida, where the main race is scheduled for Sunday, December 6. Coverage of the reveal will air live on FloRacing and the NASCAR Channel.
Dodge will also host “The Dodge Sno-Brawl,” an event in which celebrity drivers will compete in similarly prepared, late-generation Dodge Charger stock cars. Additional race details will be announced at a later date.
Dodge is scheduled to make its first paid start in the NASCAR Cup Series since 2012 when the 2027 season begins with the 69th annual Daytona 500 on Sunday, February 21 on FOX, HBO Max, MRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
This story will be updated.
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