The 2025-26 Silly Season has felt less like a calendar shuffle and more like a tectonic plate shift. Charters have been courted, numbers renumbered, and team identities sharpened as NASCAR doubles down on parity and personality. Trackhouse Racing’s global-minded Project 91 matured from a novelty to a pipeline, culminating in a multi-year extension for breakout star Shane van Gisbergen and locking the No. 88 as a headline act for 2026 conversations. Meanwhile, the grid keeps morphing: 23XI Racing expanded to three cars with Riley Herbst in the No. 35; Front Row Motorsports reset its lineup around Zane Smith and Todd Gilliland; Kaulig Racing renumbered while shuffling veterans into fresh seats. The board is still moving rapidly, and that pressure is most visible where history and expectation intersect, inside Richard Childress Racing.
Richard Childress’ grandsons, Ty Dillon and Austin Dillon, each are living a different chapter of the same family saga. Austin’s 2025 ledger, including 24 starts through Watkins Glen, four top-10s, eight laps led, and a recent upswing with P10 at Iowa and P15 at The Glen after bruising Indy, has placed him 28th in points. On the other hand, Ty, rebooting with Kaulig Racing’s No. 10, has logged 24 starts, 32nd in standings with 355 points, one top-10, and steady finishes as the group hunts week-to-week speed. This brings us to the present talk of locks and lines on the next season: if Kaulig is closing in on keeping Ty in the fold.
Kaulig Racing teases contract closure for Ty Dillon’s future
In a recent interview with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Kaulig Racing’s President Chris Rice underscored just how close Ty Dillon is to securing his spot in the NASCAR Cup Series for 2026. “We’re still in negotiations. I think by Friday, we will 100% know. We’re real close to having Ty’s deal done again for ’26.” This would mark his first back-to-back full-time ride since 2020. While silly season chatter often sputters with rumors and delays, Rice’s statement signals a rare moment of confidence and completion. After years of bouncing between teams and series, including Germain Racing, Gaunt Brothers Racing, Our Motorsports, and Jordan Anderson Racing, Dillon looks to become a fixture again, also suggesting Kaulig’s long-term vision is leaning toward continuity over turnover.
Far from being a placeholder, Dillon has surprised critics and fans alike with competitive consistency in 2025. “We feel like he’s done a good job,” said Rice. “He’s had some ups and downs, yes. But he hasn’t done what everybody thought he was gonna do, run around last and be way off the pace.” His average starting position of 24.5 is the best of his Cup career, and his average finish of 23.3 ranks among his top four full-time seasons, precisely the performance boost Kaulig needed to remain playoff relevant despite hurdles. It is that unexpected stability and occasional flashes of pace that give Kaulig reason to want more of the same across seasons.
While inconsistent weekends happen, sapience lies in overall value. “He’s actually been in contention at some races,” Rice continued. “He had not a really good race this weekend at Watkins Glen. But Ty has done a really good job for us.” For instance, in the Clash at Daytona, Dillon soared, qualifying highest among non-qualifiers and then finishing an impressive 3rd in the Duel at Daytona. Even in the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series In-Season Challenge, although entering as the lowest seed, he knocked out top drivers like Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski, eventually advancing to the finals. His ability to stay competitive, especially in races where Kaulig lacked historical firepower, strengthens this argument.
.@C_Rice1 says he expects @tydillon to return to the organization for next season with a potential announcement coming soon.
“We’re real close to having Ty’s deal done […] he’s pushed us to be better.”
More from the @KauligRacing President → https://t.co/MKhd9eLpQA pic.twitter.com/Vs8BXJ2w0G
— SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Ch. 90) (@SiriusXMNASCAR) August 15, 2025
Behind the scenes, Kaulig has been reinforcing its infrastructure for long-term competitiveness. “And the thing that makes us better is we are better as an organization on the Cup side,” said Rice. “We run faster, we’ve had speed.” Bringing in technical director Mike Cook, seasoned crew chief Andrew Dickeson, and aligning with RCR for engineering depth has made the team grow at an enormous rate. However, this has not been without its setbacks. “You guys sitting are talking about Kyle Busch not making the playoffs,” he said. “You’re talking about the Roush Fenway cars not making the playoffs, the 48s on the cut line. And for AJ to be in the conversation, we made some pretty bad errors throughout the year.”
But small wins come from learnt lessons. “I think he’s [Ty Dillon] pushed us to be better in certain areas. And I think we’ll make him better. If he gets one more year in the car, he’ll be even better,” he assured. That is the mutually reinforcing vision behind this nearing agreement. Dillon’s tenure has lifted Kaulig, and Kaulig’s supportive environment, engineering upgrades, and stability promise to sharpen Dillon’s performance even more.
Ty Dillon’s late-season surge in the In-Season Challenge and improving fan perception show he is not just filling a role, but helping define it. But far more things have been worrying his grandfather lately, with many veterans coming forward to defend him.
Richard Childress’ five-decade legacy of loyalty
Richard Childress has built a reputation over more than five decades as a team owner who never backs down from defending his drivers, even if that means challenging NASCAR itself. From his early days as an owner-driver in 1969 to his shift into full-time ownership in 1981, Childress’ “blue-collar” ethos has shaped Richard Childress Racing. He famously stood by Dale Earnhardt Sr. after the 1986 North Wilkesboro penalty for rough driving, calling NASCAR’s ruling an overreaction, a stance he echoed recently while urging the sport to “take a deep dive” into what he sees as unfair penalties.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. has stepped in to back Childress, explaining on the Dale Jr Download that his frustrations come from long-standing patterns, not paranoia, saying, “There were times in the 80s and 90s where there was a little bit of that, where Dad would get penalized for rough driving, and boy, you know, Richard would be like, ‘You know, NASCAR’s wrong. They screwed us.’” H pointed to recent penalties, like Austin Hill’s 2024 Richmond points loss and 2025 suspension after an Indianapolis wreck, as amplifying frustration. “It seems like ever since then, Richard feels like that they’re out to get them. And I don’t think that that’s real,” Junior added.
Despite the dispute, Dale Jr. praised Childress’s hands-on commitment, stating, “He’s there. He’s in it. It’s his life.” That dedication mirrors stories from the past, like the 1987 Talladega crash, where Childress rebuilt cars overnight to keep his team in the fight. With 117 Cup wins to his name, his clashes over charters and penalties are, in Junior’s eyes, just proof of the passion that has kept RCR competitive for generations.
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