Will Brown in Chicago. Image: Supplied
Brown, who described his deal to run in the Cup Series at the Chicago street course in July as two years in the making, was taken out in a multi-car crash on just the third lap.
In the wake of that disappointment, Kaulig Racing is understood to have invited the Queenslander back to tackle the Portland road course on August 30.
While Brown’s deal is yet to be confirmed, Kaulig announced this week that it has parted ways with one of its three full-time Xfinity drivers, Josh Williams.
“Kaulig Racing will field the No. 11 Chevrolet with multiple drivers over the remaining 12 NASCAR Xfinity Series races,” the team said in a statement.
“More announcements regarding the driver line-up will be forthcoming.”
Ironically, the first replacement driver confirmed ahead of this weekend’s race at Iowa is Spire Cup Series regular Carson Hocevar, who triggered the Chicago crash that took out Brown.
Will Brown’s NASCAR return cruelled by multi-car pile-up
Kaulig Racing president Chris Rice teased a surprise for Portland when elaborating on the team’s situation.
“When you look at the next four weeks there are some opportunities to go and judge and grade the Xfinity program,” he told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
“You know, we’ve got to get our Xfinity program back to where we’re contending for wins and trophy hunting and doing different things like that.
“Sometimes, you know, we were going to take a fourth car to places just to figure that out. Now we can do it with the third car.
“So, looking at it over the next four weeks, I think it’s a pretty good lineup and I think everybody’s going to be surprised with the standalone race that’s coming up in Portland.”
The addition of Brown would make for two Australians in the Portland field as Jack Perkins is already announced to compete aboard a Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
Chicago Xfinity winner Shane van Gisbergen will not tackle Portland as the Cup Series is racing at Darlington on the same weekend.
It’s already been a big week for Brown following an announcement on Wednesday that he’s extended his Triple Eight deal through 2029.
Brown’s NASCAR forays have been backed by Triple Eight co-owners Earl Evans and Steve Blackmore, as well as Boost co-founder turned MobileX boss Peter Adderton.
Triple Eight teammate Broc Feeney also harbours NASCAR ambitions but efforts to stitch together an Xfinity road course program with Kaulig this year proved unsuccessful.
It’s unclear what impact Triple Eight’s Supercars switch from Chevrolet to Ford for 2026 will have on either driver’s future NASCAR prospects.