NASCAR powerhouse considered stopping after first win

Kaulig Racing’s charters: Not one, but two

In some respect, the fact that Matt Kaulig was able to make the move when he did is a surprise. While it may have come down to good timing on his part, there were several other owners looking to purchase charters, specifically for this year amid the launch of the new car.

Some weren’t able to do so. But Kaulig ended up being able to purchase not one, but two — an impressive feat, given the state of the charter market.

“A lot of people ask — our intention, and even when we started one car back in 2016, the intention was just that, was to do that: run one car. Our intention getting into the Cup Series was to run one car. We knew even last year that it was just going to be Justin Haley, that we were going to move Justin up, and run a car.

“But we did have the opportunity through Spire to acquire two of them. So when we started talking to them about buying one – or started talking to everybody about buying one – the opportunity came up where we were able to get two. And they’re hard to come by! If they would have offered, or if we would have been able to get maybe four last year or a couple years ago, then we would.”

Even 23XI Racing, the team co-owned by Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin, almost missed out on a second charter for 2022. And the Justin Marks and Pitbull-owned Trackhouse Racing Team needed to acquire Chip Ganassi Racing to land two of their own.

“It’s very well documented how many people are looking for charters,” Kaulig continued.” Denny Hamlin and those guys were searching and trying to buy, Trackhouse ended up having to acquire and buy a whole race team to get charters. So we were thrilled we were able to do that. But that’s why you see we’re running full-time with two cars but sharing that second car, just because we had the opportunity to and we’re just kind of getting our feet wet with that second car while Justin Haley runs for points.”

Ironically, Haley competed in a number of races for Spire Motorsports over the last few years, in addition to competing for Kaulig Racing in the Xfinity Series.

“[Team owner] T.J. [Puchyr] has been a good friend of ours for a few years,” Kaulig said. “I think [Justin running there] had something to do with it; it wasn’t the reason why they sold them to us, but just our relationship with them and with other teams certainly helps. Nobody wants to help somebody who you’re not friends with. But it didn’t have a whole lot to do with the fact that Justin was already there, it just so happened to be that he was already there.”