Kaulig Racing is without a grocery cart.
The cart is a help when shopping for food. Putting all your items in a cart is easier than carrying them all. In the NASCAR world, a manufacturer -- Chevrolet, Ford or Toyota -- would be the cart. They are the resource teams rely on for valuable information and assistance.
This year Kaulig is fielding two Chevys while working without Chevy's help.
"You're just in [the grocery store] fighting for your life to get enough food to feed the family," team CEO Chris Rice told ESPN. "It's like we don't have our cart, but what we do have is all the guys and gals around us have bought into my and Matt Kaulig's vision."
While some might walk out of the store when they can't find a cart, Kaulig Racing doesn't have that option. They've had to make it work. When the organization signed with Ram for its newly created Craftsman Truck Series operation this season, Chevrolet pulled its support for the team's Cup Series program.
No more data, no access to simulators and the technology center, and no access to Chevrolet teammates and their resources.
Rice knew that would be the case and doesn't fault Chevrolet for having to make that decision. He appreciates how upfront everyone was, and still appreciates all the brand did for Kaulig Racing.
"Part of it, too, on our side of it is you're always going to be behind Hendrick Motorsports, and Spire Motorsports (Hendrick's alliance partner) has gotten really good, but you either are that team or are aligned with that team," AJ Allmendinger said to ESPN. "Now we don't even have that to trail off. We were always going to be behind Richard Childress Racing, but you were at least trailing a little bit behind.
"As they learned more, the trickle-down was you would learn some of that, and you hoped they kept learning to keep riding their coattails. We don't even have that now."
Childress had been Kaulig Racing's alliance partner, with information shared between the two. Now forced to be completely independent, that even includes building their own bodies, which the organization had never done before.
The drivers, Allmendinger and Ty Dillon, are working off previous race video, in-car footage and feel in the race car each week. There is no simulator time to run through setups or data to sift through. Dillon, however, hasn't been fazed. He's taken to doing things differently and enjoys that the team isn't bogged down in the science and data that dominates the sport.
The team spends less time in meetings each week. Dillon explains that those meetings usually focused on breaking down what happened in the race, whether the technology worked and how it correlated with what they expected from the simulator. And then the drivers would go off and do more simulator sessions for upcoming races.
"We don't have to do that now, so it's given us a little more time to recover and recharge during the week," Dillon told ESPN. "Not being in the simulator all the time has shown us that a lot of that is wasted time where you could be focused on physical things. It's kind of been a blessing and a curse."
Manufacturer resources, whether financial or informational, make the racing world go round. It makes things easier on a race team. Trent Owens, Allmendinger's crew chief, revealed to ESPN that without all of that, he now has to work a week ahead because the team can't develop things as quickly anymore. The teams are also now working mainly off of their historical notes.
"I wouldn't use the word 'better' because I miss my tools," countered Owens to Dillon's claim that Kaulig Racing might be better this way. "But sometimes we get hyper-focused on certain things, and it has allowed us to have more conversations with the drivers, spend a little more time with the guys assembling the cars and making sure what we think we have as a race car is actually what we have. So, it has allowed us to pay more attention to the processes and the production flow, and all that has gotten a lot better."
Owens has spent much of his NASCAR career with teams that had to do more with less, so this reality is not new to him. Even so, those initial conversations were scary for everyone when Kaulig Racing knew this was the world they would be living in for 2026, and in knowing what they would be up against with everyone else in the series still having the tools.
But one common theme among employees has been crediting everyone involved for rising to the occasion and getting to work. Owens and Andrew Dickeson, Dillon's crew chief, have done their part in being team leaders. Mike Cook, the technical director, is among the executive team digging down with them while overseeing it all.
It has been both a frustrating and rewarding season. The frustration comes from wanting more from the results, but also feeling as though there have been weekends when they exceeded their goals. Owens stated he and Allmendinger should be in the top 20, and that is where they aim. An eighth-place finish at Iowa Speedway earlier this month was an outstanding day.
"We were excited, not like we won the race, but if we finished second," Owens said. "It's been a change for our team in some ways, and maybe some character building in some ways."
Allmendinger has done a lot of character building. As one of the most competitive drivers in the garage, it's hard for him to believe any of it is good enough, but if forced to, he can acknowledge that what Kaulig Racing is doing is great for what they have at their disposal.
"You go into the weekend with what I call ultimate goals, and that's always to win the race," Allmendinger said. "If you don't show up to win the race, then don't show up, but you also have to have realistic ideas. But it also sucks. It sucks to try to explain to somebody, 'Hey, we finished 17th today, and that's pretty damn good. We got everything we could.' That's hard on the mental side of it to accept that and not be OK with it, but in a way be OK with it."
The numbers, according to Dillon, can be deceiving. There are many variables that can bury a team in points that have nothing to do with how they performed during the race, like mechanical issues, a driver mistake, a bad pit stop or getting caught up in someone else's mess. Rice doesn't believe Dillon gets the credit he deserves for often running inside the top 20.
"I feel like we've overachieved more than people know," Rice said. "I'm very thankful for Mike Cook finally getting over worrying and just going to work. He's gone to work so hard, and I can't thank him enough.
"Without an OEM, it's tough. But we have a great one with Ram, and we know that."
This reality should give way to something bigger. Kaulig Racing is a Ram anchor team, which means the goal is for Ram to enter the Cup Series at some point. The push is on to make that happen sooner rather than later, but there are a few hurdles to clear, such as new vehicle submission processes, wind-tunnel testing and, of course, developing an engine. The latter is the toughest.
The earliest Ram could enter the Cup Series would be 2027, but no timetable has been committed to or announced. Either way, Kaulig Racing is building a foundation for that to happen at some point, and being a key manufacturer partner is the ultimate goal for any organization.
"When they announced us as the anchor team, it's like you're a Hendrick, Gibbs or Penske," Rice said. "And having that focus on that light at the end of the tunnel makes people happy, yes.
"We don't have a manufacturer, but we have Ram, so that is our manufacturer. Even on Sundays. We're making it work, and they're behind us 100%. Even on Truck days when we're bad, they don't call us and tell us how bad we are. We're selling trucks, and that's what matters. So, we do have a manufacturer -- it's just not one in the Cup Series."
At least not yet. When they do one day again, and get all those valuable tools back, Kaulig Racing imagines a brighter future.