Back in NASCAR’s early days, one particular brand of high-performance muscle played a vital role in shaping the sport’s identity. Their late-60s aero cars, including a winged coupe that first broke the 200mph barrier at Talladega, became a legend. By the early 2000s, their factory-backed trucks were winning multiple championships in the Craftsman Truck Series, even developing a dedicated initiative in 2001 to support a groundbreaking minority driver program, and it’s exactly the brand that you think it is.

Dodge first roared into NASCAR back in 1953, swiftly making its presence felt when Lee Petty claimed the brand’s inaugural win in a Dodge Coronet at Palm Beach Speedway. Throughout the late 1960s and early 70s, Dodge aero-warriors such as the Charger Daytona dominated superspeedways, even shattering the 200 mph barrier at Talladega in 1970. Factory remained strong through 1972, powering teams like Petty Enterprises and Bud Moore Racing before an eventual exit. It wasn’t until 2001 that Dodge earned a triumphant return to Cup with the Charger, clinching the finale of its resurgence with the 2012 title before withdrawing once more.

The wait for a comeback has nearly ended. In June 2025, Ram officially confirmed its return to the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series ahead of the 2026 season. This move restored Stellantis’ sibling brand to the track in a full-factory capacity for the first time since 2016. NASCAR insiders celebrated the decision as the track’s first new manufacturer entry in 20 years, noting that 4 OEMs will now compete, a boost likely to inject fresh competition and sponsor investment. The leaked images of a Ram 1500 concept truck spotted at Michigan International Speedway amplified anticipation, fueling speculation that might follow by rejoining in the near future, and those rumors turned it to be absolutely true as Dodge revealed its comeback just before the FireKeepers Casino 400 race this season.

But amid the rising buzz, there is another manufacturer that is trying to partner with Ram. CR7 Motorsports posted a cryptic social media update teasing a major announcement, and eagle-eyed fans believe that it’s hinting at Ram factory support. The team recently added Grant Enfinger to its lineup, and several rumbles online also suggest CR7 could be the first team to field the new Ram trucks in 2026. The synergy is compelling as CR7 has long overperformed as an underdog, and Ram would gain brand credibility from a nimble, scrappy team, creating a potentially powerful narrative.

This unfolding scenario echoes Dodge’s earlier strategy, factory ingenuity pushing mid-tier teams into the spotlight. Just as Dodge in the early 2000s rallied through Hendrick-linked Ray Evernham and Ganassi team, Ram could reignite competition too across Chevy and Ford-aligned trucks. Observers point out the importance of manufacturer diversity for NASCAR’s competitive health, and insiders believe this could cascade into 2027 and 2028 Cup involvement if Truck Series experiments succeed.

While CR7 hasn’t confirmed the partnership yet, their cryptic big announcement post has set the rumor mill ablaze ahead of the off-season. This move has Ram poised to capitalize on the momentum of a returning muscle car legend. As the Truck Series landscape braces for 2026, fans on Reddit remain puzzled with growing anticipation, waiting to see whether their theories become reality.

CR7’s surprise post leaves fans digging for clues

“Exactly the right move if you’re Dodge (RAM). Give your money to a team that has shown it can overperform with less,” one fan applauded the decision, even before official confirmation. CR7 has repeatedly punched above its weight as a small but formidable force. In October 2024, the team scored its first Truck Series win when Grant Enfinger held off a stacked field at Talladega Superspeedway, earning him a playoff berth. Enfinger followed that with another dramatic victory at Homestead-Miami in the Baptist Health 200, executing a savvy fuel-saving strategy to outperform more heavily funded outfits. Earlier this season as well, he nearly clinched a win at Michigan, leading late before a last-turn pass relegated him to a strong runner-up finish.

For RAM, placing their support behind a scrappy team with proven overperformance credibility ensures smart exposure, but at a fraction of the cost required for top-tier outfits. Another fan agreed, saying, “Whatever it is it has been so cool seeing CR7 and Enfinger be so successful that they’re even outrunning all of Thorsport,” and that’s no empty praise. After transitioning from a part-time seat with ThorSport in 2021, Enfinger returned full-time to CR7 in 2024 and immediately transformed the underdog team into a serious contender. He claimed locked in a spot in the Championship 4, with a dominant performance where he led 34 laps and controlled Stage 2 en route to his victory.

Other fans delved into the manufacturing aspects of it, speculating if their theories could indeed be linked to one another, since the official declaration awaits confirmation. “GMS Fab still builds trucks for CR7 among others so it would make some sort of sense to see them move to Ram with the rumors of Spencer Gallagher reviving GMS as a Ram team,” the fan commented. Even after GMS Racing officially closed in 2023, its fabrication wing continued building chassis, servicing teams like CR7 Motorsports, Rackley W.A.R., and McAnally-Hilgemann Racing. Meanwhile, insider discussions include theories about Spencer Gallagher bringing back the GMS team under Ram’s banner, leveraging that existing build infrastructure. The move would be seamless if true, given the factory-ready foundation already in place.

There were some others who almost figured it out through clues from the past, as one fan wrote, “Their notes were all GMS notes, so if allegedly GMS is going Dodge this makes sense.” GMS Fabrication’s truck seem to be consistently aligning with the team’s design philosophy and engineering, implying that if GMS were to partner with Dodge, the seamless continuation of those standards would naturally follow.

The subsequent rumors have confused fans who believed that CR7 would be partnering with Dodge originally, with one fan questioning, “I may be way off on this, but weren’t they one of the teams rumored to be going to Dodge?” The speculation stemmed from Stellantis’s announcement that Ram will return to the Truck Series in 2026, fueling discussion about which teams might partner with the brand.

With no official name drop, the rumor continues to grow, and the opinions continue to become louder with each passing day, and fans and insiders alike are watching for it closely.