Christian Eckes will be Kaulig Racing’s third Xfinity Series driver in 2025, the team announced at Darlington on Saturday. He will pilot the No. 16 car in 2025 with a multi-year agreement.
He will complete a three-driver roster for the team in Xfinity next year alongside Josh Williams, who’s driven for the team this year, and Daniel Dye, who will also be new to the team next year.
Eckes won the Truck Series championship earlier this year and is currently the series’ points leader as the Playoffs begin, driving for McAnally-Hilgemann Racing.
“Yeah, just super excited for this opportunity. This is something that I feel like it’s been a long time coming and to do it with Kaulig Racing with Chris, Matt and so many great teammates as well is something that I’m really looking forward to,” Eckes said.
“Obviously I still have a lot to achieve this year still, but I’m very excited for the future and yeah, just ready to get to work.”
Chris Rice, team president of Kaulig Racing, says that his team also has work to do. The team experienced rapid growth and success after its founding in 2016, making the Playoffs every year since the system started in Xfinity.
However, this year’s performance has been underwhelming, with only one of their drivers picking up any wins. And that driver, Shane van Gisbergen, will be leaving the team for Trackhouse in the Cup Series next year anyway.
“About this, it’s time to get it out,” Rice said of the news. “But we’ve got to get our Xfinity cars and continue to get them better. So when Christian and Daniel come over in 25, we’ve got some speed. So good luck, AJ, Josh.”
Rice said that a big part of the problem for Kaulig has been overstretching its drivers, with big Xfinity and Cup efforts. For that reason, Kaulig will have AJ Allmendinger move to the Cup Series and focus on that, while Williams, Dye, and Eckes will only be competing in the Xfinity Series.
“Strictly Xfinity,” Rice described the deal. “Like I said, when we talked about AJ, his is strictly Cup. We’ve had that conversation. We’ve done, we’ve made some mistakes by running people too many times, but this is strictly Xfinity to try to get.
“We want to win a championship, right, and that is something that we are very passionate about, and we definitely want to do, and we know that in Welcome, North Carolina we needed to get some speed back and I think we’re starting to turn the curve there. This is all Xfinity, to try to win a championship.”
Similarly, the team has no plan for its Cup drivers to make one-off Xfinity starts next season, and Rice doesn’t anticipate a fourth car added to the lineup at any race next season, though that could change if sponsors come together for it.
However, there is the possibility of a future Cup ride to tempt Eckes in the future. Rice described last week during Dye’s announcement that a primary purpose of the Cup program was to attract younger drivers by giving them a clear route to NASCAR’s highest level, and he confirmed that it was certainly part of the discussion with Eckes and Dye.
At the moment, sponsorship is up in the air, with partners to be announced at a later date. Funding will also likely decide the Cup lineup, with current driver of the No. 31 Daniel Hemric not appearing at either of the announcements and sharing that his future remains unclear.
“That’s one of the biggest reasons for Daniel Dye, Christian Eckes, all those guys,” Rice said. “We’re looking to see okay, what would you do with the Cup program in a couple of years. So yeah, definitely it’s one of things we looked at when we were talking about it for sure.”
Similarly, Eckes won’t be making any Xfinity starts for the remainder of this season, instead focusing on his Truck campaign and going for a championship in that series.
“We are very respectful of McNally and that Chevy partnership, right?” Rice answered. “We don’t want him to even think about this until he gets done winning the championship at Phoenix and Matt and myself and everybody go have some beers with him after he wins on Friday night.”
While Allmendinger may be moving away from the Xfinity Series for next season to lead the team’s Cup program, he remains the linchpin of the team and certainly had input in picking Eckes. Last week, Rice confirmed that AJ was heavily involved in picking Dye, too.
“A lot,” Rice said about the amount of input Allmendinger had. “AJ had a lot in that AJ is – I hate to be a broken record – but he’s out guy. He’s been our guy. Like he’s been our guy that we didn’t have a clue how to win. Like at zero wins, he’s the guy that’s pushed us to 28 wins.
“So when we sit down to talk, we give him exactly what we were thinking. And I said, what do you think about this? And he was very for it. He thought it was a good idea.”
As the 42-year-old veteran scales back his focus on driving to spend more time with his family, Allmendinger is assuring the future success of the team that gave him his opportunity to return to Cup.
Speaking of future performance, a new alliance may improve Kaulig’s chances. The team will be partnering with Richard Childress Racing, also based in Welcome, North Carolina, which Rice promises will be particularly tight.
“The details are – we want to be one,” Rice explained. “I think we’re going to call it ‘One Welcome,’ so when all trailers leave Welcome, that we’re one. We’re locked arms like a marriage and not like somebody that doesn’t know what the other hand’s doing. You want to know what’s going on.”
Eckes expects the partnership to improve performance for both teams and accelerate Kaulig’s regrowth.
“Yeah, I think not only Kaulig but RCR is on an upward trajectory,” he pointed out. “Racing has this weird thing where it’s kind of a circle, and they’re kind of at the bottom right now but I think they’re on the way back up.
“And that was a big piece of me coming here as well, because I felt like I could add to that and help get them back on the right track. That’s about it, but I feel very comfortable with where we’re at.”
As Kaulig works on getting back up and fighting for the Xfinity Series championship once again, it’s got the driver lineup who will lead that effort ready.
