Archive image, representative of Dodge's earlier Cup era: Reed Sorenson's No. 41 Target Dodge Charger at Daytona, February 2008. Photo: Freewheeling Daredevil via <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Reed_Sorenson_2008_Target_Dodge_Charger.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/">CC BY 2.0</a>
Dodge will start the 2027 Daytona 500 on Feb. 21 with a two-car Kaulig Racing team, its first points-paying Cup start since 2012, and the release announcing it names no engine builder, no drivers and no car numbers.
Tim Kuniskis, head of the American Brands, SRT Performance and Direct Connection division at Stellantis North America, shared the news Monday during a preview of the Stellantis display at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas, according to the release Kaulig Racing posted. NASCAR.com’s report counts a 14-year gap and calls Dodge the fourth manufacturer in the series alongside Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota, and the first newcomer since Toyota in 2007. We pointed to the SEMA and Homestead dates in our countdown earlier this month.
What the release leaves out
The engine. NASCAR Event Management president John Probst said on a Monday teleconference that the engine Kaulig will run complies with the rulebook, then left it to Dodge SRT Racing and the team to announce what it is. The release does not mention one.
The drivers. Kaulig will name its 2027 lineup at Homestead-Miami Speedway, where the Cup championship is decided Sunday at 2 p.m. ET on NBC. The two-car count comes from NASCAR.com, not the release, and neither document gives car numbers.
The body. The release says every road-going Charger comes as a two-door coupe or a four-door sedan, and neither document says which shape the race car will wear.
The body approval
Probst said a brand-new car from a new manufacturer normally goes through about 18 months of CFD and wind tunnel testing, followed by a check of actual production panels to confirm they still fit the performance window. Dodge has passed the wind tunnel portion, he said, and production panels are due in the middle of November, roughly 14 weeks before the Daytona 500. He expects that step to be routine.
Kuniskis put the schedule this way: “Everyone said it was impossible to get back in one year.” The release’s answer is to plan, test and refine at the same time, on the track instead of ahead of it.
Dodge’s record and the calendar
Dodge raced in Cup from 2001 through 2012 and won 57 times in that stretch, per NASCAR.com. Brad Keselowski’s 2012 title came with the brand’s 217th career Cup win, at Dover that fall, and Dodge left afterward. Ram returned to NASCAR in 2026 in the Truck Series with Kaulig, which fielded five full-time trucks; NASCAR.com lists Tony Stewart, Jamie McMurray and Ryan Newman among its drivers, and we covered Stewart’s Daytona truck start in January.
Dodge will reveal the race car on Dec. 4 at the Snowball Derby at Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Florida, with a livestream on FloRacing and the NASCAR Channel. The Derby feature runs Dec. 6. The same weekend includes the Dodge Sno-Brawl, a celebrity race in Charger late-model stock cars, with details to come.
The release pairs the racing news with the road-car lineup: a 600-horsepower Charger Super Bee Launch Edition, a 550-horsepower Scat Pack and a 420-horsepower R/T, all with standard all-wheel drive, which the rear-drive Cup car will not share. Our look at Mopar’s $10,995 ’27 Charger package covers what that lineup costs to dress up.
Sources: Kaulig Racing and Stellantis release, Nov. 2, 2026; NASCAR.com report by Zach Sturniolo, Nov. 2, 2026.
Is a Dodge comeback built in one year, with production panels arriving in November, good for the Cup Series, or a rush the Daytona 500 field will end up paying for?
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