After going to a more traditional model in 2023 featuring two full-time cars and two full-time drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series, Kaulig Racing is reverting to its 2022-style lineup in 2024 with one full-time driver and three drivers sharing a second team entry.

The lone driver of the organization’s No. 31 Chevrolet is Daniel Hemric — the 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series champion and one of the drivers who made select starts in Kaulig Racing’s No. 16 Chevrolet in 2022. Hemric, who replaces Justin Haley in the No. 31, has competed full time for Kaulig in the Xfinity Series in each of the past two seasons along with his part-time Cup Series schedule in 2022.

This season will mark Hemric’s second full season in NASCAR’s premier division, after the Kannapolis, North Carolina native ran the full Cup schedule in 2019 for Richard Childress Racing.

Hemric hopes the familiarity he has with Kaulig, having turned laps in both the organization’s Cup and Xfinity Series cars over the last two years, will enable him to hit the ground running this season with veteran crew chief Trent Owens calling the shots atop his pit box.

“It’s truly special to have an opportunity to do something big with a group of people that want it just as bad as you,” Hemric said. “It takes heart, and each and every person at Kaulig has it.”

While Kaulig has promoted Hemric from a full-time Xfinity Series ride to a full-time opportunity in the Cup Series, the organization that went full-time Cup Series racing for the first time in 2022 has effectively demoted veteran AJ Allmendinger — the driver responsible for both of the company’s two wins at the Cup Series level.

Allmendinger, one-third of the trio that made cameo starts in the No. 16 Kaulig Cup car in 2022, took over the seat full time last season but will revert to sharing the seat in 2024 — now with team newcomers Shane van Gisbergen and Josh Williams. Along with his partial Cup Series slate for Kaulig, Allmendinger will return to the Xfinity Series full time for the organization.

After triumphing in last season’s Cup Series race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL, Allmendinger expected to remain the sole driver of Kaulig’s No. 16 Cup car in 2024, but the team decided to go in a different direction.

“My plans for 2024 have always been whatever (team owner) Matt Kaulig and (team president) Chris Rice think is best for the team,” Allmendinger said. “We’ve got work to do on both our Xfinity and Cup side as we continue to grow, but I think we are putting ourselves in the best position to keep improving.”

Kaulig Racing, which was unable to place a team in the playoffs in either of its first two seasons with a full-time Cup Series entry, hopes to boost its overall on-track results with the addition of van Gisbergen and Williams.

A three-time Supercars champion and a native of Auckland, New Zealand, van Gisbergen became the first driver since 1963 to win in his Cup Series debut when he prevailed in last year’s inaugural Chicago Street Race. That result, coupled with a 10^th-place finish later in the year on the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, helped van Gisbergen secure a seven-race Cup Series slate in Kaulig Racing’s No. 16 car this season, along with the opportunity to run the full Xfinity Series schedule for the organization.

Both efforts are in partnership with Trackhouse Racing, which recently announced an alliance with Kaulig Racing that will allow the two organizations to collaborate in preparing van Gisbergen’s cars for his limited Cup Series schedule.

“There has been a lot of hard work to get to this point, and I could not be happier to know that I get to race for an Xfinity Series championship and then get a proper go at the Cup Series on road courses and ovals,” said van Gisbergen, who is known to most everyone in the racing world as SVG.

“Kaulig is a proven winner in both the Xfinity and the Cup Series, and I know with the alliance with Trackhouse, this will be an incredible first year for me in NASCAR.”

Williams, meanwhile, is set to run the entire Xfinity Series schedule for Kaulig Racing after collecting three top-10 finishes in the Xfinity Series competition last season with DGM Racing.

He’ll make his official debut in Kaulig’s No. 16 Cup Series entry at Atlanta Motor Speedway on February 25 after running the preseason Busch Light Clash at The Coliseum exhibition event, with the rest of his Cup schedule yet to be announced. Williams has only three previous Cup Series starts, which all came in 2022 for BJ McLeod Motorsports, a lower-tier team.

“Getting another opportunity in the Cup Series is humbling — especially with a team like Kaulig Racing,” Williams said.