Dodge is coming back to NASCAR's top series. The manufacturer confirmed it will compete in the Cup Series starting in 2027, ending a 14-year absence that began after the 2012 season, and it made the announcement at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas. The move will give NASCAR four manufacturers in its premier series again; four manufacturers competed together from 2007 through 2012.
According to The Athletic, Dodge's pending arrival gives NASCAR four manufacturers racing in its top series, joining Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota. Dodge is owned by Stellantis, and the Cup return follows the brand's Ram truck division re-entering NASCAR's Truck Series in 2026. As WBAL News Radio notes, the Cup Series runs a 36-race schedule that begins in mid-February and crowns its champion in early November.
Kaulig Racing Gets the Keys
Kaulig Racing will field two Dodge cars beginning with the Daytona 500, with AJ Allmendinger and Ty Dillon expected to drive them, per Jayski. The Athletic adds that Kaulig is also expected to field a third car in select races, including the season-opening Daytona 500. It's a notable jump for the team, which fielded five trucks in the 2026 Truck Series season but ranked outside the top 10 in the standings heading into this weekend's season finale at Homestead, Florida.
On the engine side, the same Jayski report says Earnhardt Childress Racing will build Dodge-spec engines alongside its existing Chevrolet engine program. Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota allowed the arrangement, and The Athletic reports the three manufacturers felt that a fourth manufacturer entering NASCAR would benefit them all and is good for the overall health of the league.
A Faster-Than-Expected Comeback
Accounts differ on just how quickly Dodge pulled this off. WHIO reports that Dodge's return was confirmed for 2027, a year earlier than initially expected, while earlier reporting from The Detroit News had quoted an official saying, “Everyone said it was impossible for us to come back in 2027. So we are targeting 2028.” The timeline for getting a new engine ready is also described differently across outlets — WHIO reports that normally, it would have taken Dodge two years to get ready for the Cup Series, while The Athletic describes a new manufacturer's typical build-up period as approximately three years.
The compressed schedule has fueled speculation about shortcuts. Dodge reportedly bypassed part of the timeline usually required to develop a new engine, though the dossier of reporting reviewed for this story does not spell out every step behind the accelerated plan.
Echoes of Dodge's Last Cup Run
Dodge's history in the series ended on a high note. The manufacturer raced in NASCAR through the 2012 season and left the same month it celebrated the Cup title with Brad Keselowski and Penske Racing, according to WHIO. That championship was Dodge's first since Richard Petty's sixth of seven titles back in 1975, the station reports.
The brand's return to NASCAR actually began a year earlier, when Stellantis brought back Ram after a 13-year hiatus through the Truck Series for 2026 — a move the Sports Business Journal called the first new OEM announcement since Toyota entered the sport in 2004.
Now, with Kaulig Racing lined up to run Dodge cars starting at Daytona, the sport's newest manufacturer battle is set to begin — with the first race still months away, but the groundwork for NASCAR's four-way manufacturer fight for 2027 already in motion.
