For the past two seasons, Justin Haley has been the pilot of the Kaulig Racing #31 car in the NASCAR Cup Series. Prior to that, he drove the Kaulig #11 to four wins and a Championship 4 appearance in the Xfinity Series.
After some part-time stints with Spire Motorsports from 2019-2021, Justin Haley announced a full-time move to the Cup Series along with Kaulig Racing in 2022. He scored three top 5’s and four top 10’s while leading 44 laps. He finished a respectable 21st in points and very well could have made the playoffs; he was leading late in the cutoff race at Daytona before the rainstorm in turn one resulted in over half the field, including Haley, crashing out of the race.
Many assumed Haley would stay at Kaulig for a long time, but similar to the Kyle Busch situation, the seemingly perfect pairing would not last.
On July 20, 2023, Rick Ware Racing and Justin Haley announced a multi-year contract deal beginning in the 2024 season.
Immediately, gears began turning in fans’ heads. A controversial move at the 2023 Atlanta summer race in the Xfinity Series, in which Haley failed to push teammate Daniel Hemric to the lead, began to light some bulbs…had this move been under our noses this whole time?
This move answered most speculations for RWR in 2024, yet their announcement tweet was worded in such a way that made it seem like the team could potentially downsize to one car for 2024.
One of the largest speculations though, is why the move was made in the first place.
The biggest “conspiracy” I’ve seen is that Haley took this move to RWR and the Ford camp, who have ties with RFK Racing. Some are speculating that this move was made in preparation for Haley to take over the RFK #6 when team co-owner Brad Keselowski retires.
As for Kaulig, this opens a massive void in their team. The seemingly “father-son” duo of AJ Allmendinger and Justin Haley split up, and no seemingly viable option for an immediate replacement.
Their Xfinity team consists of former Series champ Daniel Hemric and Series rookie Chandler Smith.
Among that pot, I’d personally take Hemric simply because he has more experience, including a full Cup season in 2019 with RCR and a few select starts with Kaulig and 23XI in 2022.
Yet, despite the Xfinity title for Hemric, he only has one win to his name (Phoenix 2021). He’s come so close so many times but just hasn’t been able to finish the job.
My prediction, which I’ve seen is a lot more popular than I initially thought, is Shane van Gisbergen will take over the #31 ride for 2024.
van Gisbergen of course won the 2023 Chicago Street Race in the Trackhouse Racing Project 91 car, ironically holding off Justin Haley to get the checkered in his first career start.
SVG, as he is known in his native series, is a New Zealand-born Australian SuperCar champion. Following his NASCAR victory, rumors swirled in NASCAR and SuperCar garages alike about SVG’s future in either series, with some reports indicating SVG is planning to end his SuperCar contract a year early to pursue a NASCAR endeavor.
While his oval abilities would need some proving out, his demonstrated vocation on road courses is an obvious asset in an ever-growing expansion to more road and street courses in NASCAR.
Additionally, SVG moving full-time could bring in a small revival of the Open-Wheel Invasion from the ’90s and 2000s, where champion drivers like Dario Franchitti, Scott Speed, Juan Pablo Montoya, and even some non-open-wheel drivers like fellow SuperCar driver Marcos Ambrose make starts and even some wins in NASCAR.
Since his win, SVG has announced a return for another one-off start with Trackhouse and the 91 team at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course. Joining him is F1 world champion Jenson Button, who has two starts already this season, Japanese endurance racer Kamui Kobayashi, and SuperCar comrade Brodie Kostecki to help make up the all-star international field for the Indy RC.
Of the four, SVG is the only one who as of now seems to want to move to NASCAR full-time, but perhaps one dose of Cup racing is all it will take for the others as it did for Shane.
While the stars seem to be aligning for SVG to move to the NASCAR Cup Series, there’s always a chance something different could come up. Let me know what you think will become of the Kaulig #31 for 2024 on Twitter, and follow me for more racing content.
The Slow Restart 