Every manufacturer in NASCAR makes cars. Turns out, not every one of them bothers building drivers. And that’s starting to show up on Sunday afternoons. Corey LaJoie isn’t dancing around who’s behind.
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“Ford seems to be the least engaged of all the OEMs in general,” LaJoie said. “And I believe they’re starting to pay the penalty for that on Sundays.”
Toyota’s been at this for years. They poured money into youth programs, Keith Kunz Motorsports, Kyle Busch Motorsports, scooping up talent before kids were even old enough to drive on the street. Erik Jones came through that pipeline. So did Christopher Bell. Worked so well it backfired a little.
Toyota only fields a handful of full-time Cup cars, so they ended up with more talent than seats to put it in. That’s part of why guys like William Byron and Kyle Larson are out there winning races for somebody else.
Chevy played it smarter, not bigger. Rather than just signing every hot prospect they could find, they brought in former driver Josh Wise to actually mold them. Physical training, simulator reps, data work, the full package.
They’re also funneling kids into karting and Trans Am early, since the modern Next Gen car drives a lot more like a road racer than the old-school stock cars everyone grew up watching.
Ford NASCAR? Neither approach. They’ve spent their money propping up established teams, Penske, RFK, Stewart-Haas, instead of building anything underneath them. So when a veteran hangs it up, there’s nobody waiting in the wings. Ford ends up shopping the open market for talent it could’ve grown itself.
Corey LaJoie didn’t stop at the big three, either. There’s a bigger story brewing: Stellantis is bringing Ram back into NASCAR, and Dodge might not be far behind.
The whole thing runs through Kaulig Racing, where LaJoie drives the No. 10 truck himself. Insiders are treating this truck program as the test bed Stellantis needs before it builds a real Cup engine and gets Dodge back on Sundays for the first time since 2012.
And get this, instead of the usual sponsorship grind, Ram skipped straight to a reality show. Race for the Seat put 15 short-track and Late Model drivers through on-track tests, simulator runs, the works. The winner got a fully funded truck ride.
Timothy “Mini” Tyrrell took it home, and now he’s running the No. 14 Ram full-time. A manufacturer that hasn’t even raced a full season yet already has a working pipeline.
Ford NASCAR’s Answer Is a Car, Not a Driver
So what’s Ford doing while everyone else builds a farm system? Building a faster car, basically.
They’ve confirmed the Mustang Dark Horse SC for the 2027 Daytona 500, a supercharged, 795-horsepower beast pulling its aero straight from the GT3 race program.
Ford NASCAR’s calling it the “savior car,” and that’s not just marketing talk. Penske and RFK genuinely need this thing to fix the aero problems their current Mustangs can’t shake. Before it touches a track, though, Ford still has to get the body through NASCAR’s wind tunnel testing. Approval isn’t locked in yet.
Here’s the thing, though. A better car buys you a season, maybe two. It doesn’t fix an empty cupboard. Toyota and Chevy aren’t just engineering faster cars; they’re growing the next person who’s going to drive one.
Ford NASCAR can roll out all the horsepower it wants. Until somebody’s actually in the pipeline behind the wheel, that penalty LaJoie’s talking about isn’t going anywhere.
