“Kaulig Trucks are Bad!” Denny Hamlin Gives Dodge a Brutal Reality Check Over Truck Struggles

The 2026 NASCAR Truck Series season so far hasn’t been kind to Dodge and Kaulig Racing, as the prominent stock car racing team has failed to take advantage of the serious funding from the new manufacturer retiring to the sport. One of their worst weeks of 2026 was last week at Indy, with their best finisher being Justin Haley at P18 while his teammates finished 20th, 24th, 26th, and 27th.

This got the attention of JGR veteran Denny Hamlin, who discussed their struggles in the latest episode of his podcast. He highlighted how the team is failing to make an impact despite having a massive budget, in a series where everyone uses the same engine and it’s the IRP that makes the difference. A strong side like Kaulig should’ve figured a way to be faster on the track.

And I don’t know, like what’s going on? Everyone’s got the same engine. So, it’s like, but some would say, ‘okay, it’s the bodies.’ No, it’s not at IRP, it ain’t the body. And this is a cup team that like, there’s smart people in the building. Spread your thing. They’ve certainly got the funding. It’s just, I only bring this up because we haven’t talked about it all year. just because if they weren’t painted bright yellow, you would never know they’re on the racetrack.

Denny Hamlin said on his podcast.

The poor form and the fact that there has been nothing good to talk about the team so far in the 2026 season has made Denny Hamlin questions the ambition of the OEM. He doesn’t think they should fast track their Cup plans as recently reported, considering they are failing make a mark in the top tier and they once exited the sport for the same reason.

My main takeaway from the trucks is holy crap, man, the Kaulig trucks are bad. When I say bad, if there’s a run that ever is over 40 laps, they all go a lap down, like every week… Man, are they sure they want to do this Cup thing? I mean, 25th in trucks is like your best truck; that’s just not … I think the engines is part of the hold-up on the Cup program, but it’s not just a body on a car and an engine in the car. Like there’s a lot that goes into what these manufacturers put into this deal.

Denny Hamlin added via Actions Detrimental.

Further talking about the point, Hamlin admitted that everyone in the NASCAR community wants to see Dodge performing well as the Cup Series really need a fourth OEM. At the moment, watching the RAM Trucks struggle, there is no positive hope for the team in the top tier and they needs something positive sooner than later.

Listen, I think we all want another manufacturer in, but we don’t want them to have a bad experience, you know, and I can tell you that there ain’t much that would tell me that they’re not going to just run dead last every week if they came in the Cup right now. So, I want them to have a good experience, and we’ve got to get that truck thing going, because it’s not good right now. It doesn’t look good.

Denny Hamlin asserted.

Denny Hamlin admits Dodge had become worst after every race

Later in the same conversation, the JGR veteran asserted that Kaulig’s struggle is really curious considering the fact as a team they are running good in Cup despite having no technical support from their OEM, Chevy. But in the Truck side with all the support, they are getting worse every week instead of developing.

If you’re Kaulig, it’s like, you’re actually running okay with what you got, which is really nothing from the technical side with the Chevys that they’ve got. I don’t know. It’s just alarming to me. I thought they would get better as the year goes on. They’ve gotten worse. I feel confident in saying that they’re worse now than they were two months ago.

Denny Hamlin added.

The comments from the Joe Gibbs Racing veteran are on point and shows how the whole racing community us concerned about the OEM’s struggles. Everyone was expecting Dodge to become better in Truck and make it into Cup within the next two years, but right now it seems to be a longshot.

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