Chris Rice says “good things are coming” at Kaulig Racing as NASCAR resets

Chris Rice doesn’t mince his words when it comes to the current situation at Kaulig Racing.

“Yeah, well, I mean, we were just driving horribly,” Rice told Sportsnaut in downtown Chicago on Friday. “We were pretty much everywhere we went with the Xfinity cars, slow, we had no speed. So it was time to restart.”

While Rice certainly wants to be better at the Cup Series level with Daniel Hemric and his star car, he is more focused on the Xfinity Series because he simply believes there is more possible there based on previous successful campaigns with that platform.

Both AJ Allmendinger and Josh Williams are winless heading into the summer, but Shane Van Gisbergen has won twice on road courses and has gradually improved his oval game.

“We knew we were good in Nashville (last year), so we went back and looked at all those notes and double-checked everything we did,” Rice said. “We were actually pretty good and figured out a few things we were missing. That’s the process of trying to get better when we go to all these other race tracks.”

“It’s still a work in progress with Josh, but we’re on our way to figuring it out and I’m happy with our result in Nashville. We had a chance to win the race (with Allmendinger) and a top-three finish was good and that’s a good feeling for me too.”

Was it particularly frustrating to suffer setbacks in both the Xfinity and Cup Series at the same time? And is there a connection?

“Yeah, those are two different problems,” Rice said. “We’re on the same page as RCR, and they’re bad too. We’re just as fast as them… And by the way, when I say slow, I only mean two or three tenths, right? But that’s the bottom line.”

With the NextGen car, everything is relative.

“Yeah, it’s relative,” he agreed. “So, you know, it’s not for lack of effort. We’ve talked a lot with Richard (Childress) and I’ve flown with him a lot and talked a lot with Danny Lawrence, Mike Verlander and all the others.”

“It’s getting better. There are a lot of changes coming and a lot happening. And I mean, a lot is happening with our racing team.”

This means once again that Matt Kaulig has no interest in quitting NASCAR. He wants to drive better and start winning races in droves again.

“When things are not going well, you are always under pressure. But the challenge is that everyone in the business hears what is being said in the media, that we are leaving or going out of business, and you worry about the future of the employees.

“Let me tell you something: Matt Kaulig has 80 companies and he’s been very open about looking for investors, growth partners and sponsors. I’ve been very open about that and there are some good things coming up and we hope to be able to announce them sooner rather than later.

“For example, we had a meeting here in Chicago that we hope could lead to something really good in the future.

“But this is just a crawl, isn’t it? We’re not running yet. But Matt Kaulig isn’t going anywhere. He’s 51 years old and plans to be here in his 70s and 80s. We’re going to get back to where we need to be. We won two trophies with SVG, and I’m telling you, NASCAR trophies at any level are hard to come by.”

Rice again acknowledged that “we’re not setting the world on fire right now,” but that incremental progress is being made. He also has some chances to win this weekend on the streets of Chicago, with both Van Gisbergen, the defending champion, and Allmendinger competing in both divisions.

“In some ways it’s harder this weekend because there are expectations,” Rice said. “People don’t understand that, but you can’t let anything break or fall off. We did a terrible job of making the decision to race at COTA for SVG.”

“We have to get our maneuvers together in both divisions. We have the drivers. It’s my job to make sure nothing falls down or breaks. We are prepared and ready to go.”

“Our pit crews don’t make mistakes and if we assess the race correctly, our chances are good. We expect to win. That’s why we’re here, but in some ways that makes this weekend more difficult for us.”

Matt Weaver is a motorsports insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Þjórsárden.