Kaulig Racing took to social media to reveal its driver-crew chief pairing that features a full shuffling of crew chief assignments alongside new and familiar drivers towards its three-car operation for the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series season.
First off, Kevin Walter joins the Kaulig organization to serve as a crew chief for the first time in his career and for the No. 11 Chevrolet Camaro entry that will be piloted by Josh Williams in 2024. Walter joins Kaulig after previously serving as an engineer for JR Motorsports in the Xfinity Series and as a Cup Series crew chief for five races while paired with Michael McDowell and Leavine Family Racing in 2015. He spent this past season as an engineer for Josh Berry and the No. 8 JRM team. Like Walter, his driver, Williams, is a newcomer at Kaulig, a team he joins after making 186 series career starts to date (2016-23). He spent this past season as an Xfinity competitor for DGM Racing, where he ended up in 21st place in the final driver’s standings and has both 11 top-10 career finishes and an average-finishing result of 22.7 to date.
Meanwhile, Alex Yontz will return to Kaulig for a fifth season as he will work atop the No. 16 Chevrolet Camaro entry team that will be piloted by veteran AJ Allmendinger. Yontz, a former racer turned crew chief from Walnut Cove, North Carolina, has eight Xfinity victories as a crew chief to date, including three this past season with Allmendinger twice (Circuit of the Americas in March & Nashville Superspeedway in June) and Kyle Larson once (Darlington Raceway in May) while working atop Kaulig’s No. 10 pit box. For 2024, he will be paired with Allmendinger, a 17-time Xfinity race winner who returns to the series amid a one-year absence, where he spent the previous season in the Cup Series at Kaulig and won at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course last October.
Lastly, Bruce Schlicker also returns for a fifth season at Kaulig as he will work atop the No. 97 Chevrolet Camaro entry team that will be piloted by newcomer Shane van Gisbergen. Schlicker, who holds both a Bachelor of Engineering and Master of Engineering degree in Mechanical Engineering from West Virginia University, has seven Xfinity victories as a crew chief to date, including five with Allmendinger in 2022 and one this past season with Chandler Smith that occurred at Richmond Raceway last April. The upcoming season presents a new pairing for Schlicker as he will work with van Gisbergen, a three-time Supercars champion from Auckland, New Zealand, who won in his Cup Series debut at the Chicago Street Course last July and is set to campaign in his first campaign within NASCAR’s top three national touring series for the 2024 Xfinity circuit. The Australian will also compete as a part-time Cup Series competitor for Trackhouse Racing, the team which van Gisbergen won with at Chicago.
The 2024 season is set to mark Kaulig Racing’s ninth consecutive season in the Xfinity Series and fourth fielding three full-time entries. Through a combined 524 starts, the organization has notched 23 victories, 15 poles, 121 top-five results, 274 top-10 results, 2,789 laps led. The team has also notched two Cup Series victories in a combined 158 career starts. Having placed at least one entry in the Xfinity Series Playoffs since the team’s and Playoff’s inception since 2016, Kaulig remains in pursuit of its first NASCAR national touring series championship.
Kaulig Racing’s crew chief lineup for its NASCAR Cup Series operations, including its plans for the No. 16 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 team that still remains vacant along for Jason Trinchere, who served as the crew chief for Kaulig’s No. 11 entry in the Xfinity Series, remains to be determined.
With Kaulig Racing’s driver-crew chief pairing for the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series season set, the team’s upcoming season campaign commences at Daytona International Speedway for the United Rentals 300. The event is scheduled to occur on February 17, 2024, at 5 p.m. ET on FS1.
