Derek Kraus will make his NASCAR Xfinity Series début at Richmond Raceway on 1 April when he drives the #10 Chevrolet Camaro for Kaulig Racing. The team announced the addition on Tuesday.
Kraus posted on social media, “Really looking forward to this opportunity with Kaulig Racing! All starts at Richmond next weekend! Ready to get to work!”
The 2019 ARCA West champion, Kraus was a longtime face in Bill McAnally’s regional series programme and Craftsman Truck Series arm McAnally-Hilgemann Racing. After finishing eleventh in the 2022 Truck standings with seven top tens and two poles, he was replaced by Christian Eckes for the 2023 season.
He signed a one-race deal with Young’s Motorsports for the 2023 Truck opener at Daytona, where he finished eighteenth. In the month since Daytona, he has mainly focused on the ASA STARS National Tour, where he races for his family team.
Kaulig’s #10 serves as the multi-driver car: the team’s Cup drivers A.J. Allmendinger and Justin Haley have or will make starts in the car as well as those from ally Richard Childress Racing Kyle Busch and Austin Dillon. All but Allmendinger ran the first five races, and their efforts yielded a fourth-place standing in the owner’s championship, with Busch holding its best finish of fourth at Las Vegas. Allmendinger will take over the car for his first of five starts on Saturday at Circuit of the Americas, where he won in 2022.
The team also fields the #11 for Daniel Hemric and #16 for rookie Chandler Smith, who are respectively tenth and fourth in points.
