Kaulig Racing and its 2026 operation seem to be working according to their plans. CEO Chris Rice is very happy with the team’s performance this season and has no reason to bring forth any changes. Moreover, he believes that both Truck and Cup operations are bound to find success this weekend.

One of the biggest gripes in their 2026 campaign is the lack of resources that they are facing in the Cup Series. Despite that, Rice is glad that the Cup Series drivers are bringing out the best they can with the limited support they have. Ty Dillon and AJ Allmendinger are sitting P17 and P18 in the driver standings, respectively, as of the second Cup Series race.

Secondly, Rice is happy with the Truck team’s performance at Atlanta. All of their drivers finished in the top 20, with Justin Haley having the best result (10th place). Rice strongly feels that Haley and Colin Braun can go all the way for the win at St. Pete!

There were concerns about AJ Allmendinger being unable to race at the Circuit of the Americas due to a lack of OEM support. However, CEO Chris Rice clarifies that he won’t lose out on competing in the race despite these hurdles. Allmendinger himself is looking forward to COTA with renewed energy.

“I’ve studied everything I can study in car-wise, and I’ll continually do it going into the Circuit of the Americas. I put a lot of that on myself when Goodyear keeps bringing a softer tire, trying to make it last. I do think there were certain road courses we didn’t have a lot of speed on—Watkins Glen stood out to me. I thought we were taped out and running at the edge of the top 10. So, he definitely is making everyone step up a level.

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“But when it comes to me and my frustration with SVG, no, because we’re not running second, either. We just have to get better, and I have to get better in the car to get back to where we were,” said Allmendinger.

AJ Allmendinger’s motivations are translating very well into the team as Rice reveals that he is setting up the trucks for the St. Petersburg weekend. With the likes of Justin Haley and Colin Braun, Rice believes the team has what it takes to claim the victory.

In the Cup Series, Allmendinger’s team is still awaiting crucial information about their car’s aerodynamics. However, heading into the Cup Series race at COTA, there is one glaring issue that is plaguing almost every NASCAR driver except one.

SVG terrorizes oval veterans for COTA with road course supremacy

Tyler Reddick won back-to-back this season at Daytona and Atlanta. But here’s what he had to say about the next track.

“It drives me nuts going to a road course and getting just dusted by Shane. So, we’ve been working really hard to work around our road course program and look at some things. We’ve had decent speed firing off, and that’s just not good enough. We’ve been working hard, trying things, seeing what things are like in sim.”

Van Gisbergen’s experience on traditional tracks makes him so efficient at road courses that he is setting up a benchmark many drivers believe is hard to reach. Not only that, but he is also getting better at mastering the ovals with his latest P6 at Atlanta.

The only positive in favor of the other drivers is the fact that COTA was the only road-course race that Shane lost in 2025. Considering that result, his former teammate Daniel Suarez is more than ready to take on the challenge.

“He has been doing road course racing for a long time, and he’s very experienced as well, so it’s the perfect combination. He has probably more experience than the entire field combined in road-course racing. But guess what? He’s human. So, as far as I know, every human here is beatable. So, we’re working very, very hard to get there.”

In addition to that, Connor Zilisch is also a very strong contender for this weekend. He is an experienced driver when it comes to traditional motorsports series. The Trackhouse Racing cars are not that far off from the rest of the field. So Zilisch might end up becoming the one who breaks the SVG hype at road courses.