Kaulig Racing #16 2022 driver schedule revealed

Kaulig Racing announced Monday the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series slate for the three-man #16 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 that will be shared by Xfinity Series regulars A.J. Allmendinger, Noah Gragson, and Daniel Hemric.

Allmendinger will kick off his sixteen-race schedule with the exhibition Busch Light Clash at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. With the exception of the 1.3-mile Nashville Superspeedway and the All-Star Race at Texas Motor Speedway, his slate does not contain any intermediate tracks. Instead, he will primarily race on short tracks and road courses—a no-brainer for one of the top road racers in NASCAR—as he enters all of the latter at Circuit of the Americas, Sonoma Raceway, Road America, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Watkins Glen International, and the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval. He won at Indianapolis last August (which locks him into the All-Star), while his maiden Cup victory came at The Glen in 2014. Bristol Motor Speedway and the Charlotte Roval are his only scheduled venues where he has previously won in Xfinity, with both coming in 2021 while he has also won at the latter the last three years.

Gragson, who will expand his Cup schedule beyond the Daytona 500 with Beard Motorsports for the first time, is entered in fourteen events beginning at Atlanta Motor Speedway. While much of his plate is filled with intermediates, he will be the lone non-Allmendinger short tracker as he is in the #16 at Richmond Raceway‘s August date and Martinsville Speedway‘s October round; he at both circuits in the Xfinity Series in 2021. The week before Martinsville, he will have a go at Homestead-Miami Speedway, where he nearly won last year’s Xfinity race before a late crash took him out.

Hemric, the reigning Xfinity Series champion, will run nine races beginning with the Duels that precede the Daytona 500 followed by said race. In his first Cup action since running the full 2019 season, he will run every superspeedway race as he enters both Daytona and Talladega Superspeedway rounds. Additional starts will come at Auto Club Speedway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and both Darlington Raceway events. Although Hemric scored his maiden NASCAR win at Phoenix Raceway, he will not run either date, nor will he race at Pocono Raceway or Kansas Speedway, respectively the sites of his last Cup top ten and lone Cup pole. However, he recorded his best Cup finish of fifth at the spring Talladega race.

Introduced in 2020, the #16 ran nine races in 2021 ahead of Kaulig’s full-time expansion for 2022. Allmendinger drove five races in his first Cup starts since 2014, while Kaz Grala had three and Justin Haley one. Haley will drive the team’s #31 in his first season running for Cup points. Both the #16 and #31 are locked into every race with charters.

Allmendinger and Hemric will be Xfinity team-mates at Kaulig, while Gragson is a championship rival at JR Motorsports but a fellow Chevrolet driver. The trio was announced as the #16’s lineup in December.

Full driver schedule