Kaulig Racing’s five Ram 1500s competed for the third time in the 2026 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season on Saturday in the series’ first street race, at the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg in Florida.
Colin Braun led the Ram contingent with a 9th-place finish, followed by Justin Haley in 12th, Daniel Dye in 17th, Brenden “Butterbean” Queen in 24th and “Mini” Tyrrell in 28th.
Braun’s ninth-place finish means a Ram has finished in the top 10 in each of the first three races of 2026.
Drivers had about 10 minutes of practice on Friday before rain shortened the session and canceled qualifying. NASCAR set the starting lineup according to the rulebook.
Braun — The Ram “Free Agent” driver started 16th and methodically worked his way up through the field, moving into the top 10 with 15 laps remaining. With a 9th-place finish at St. Petersburg, Braun earns the 24th top-10 finish of his NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series career. He raced full-time for 23 races from 2008 to 2009. It’s his first top-10 finish since Michigan in 2011, where he also finished in 9th-place..
Haley — Haley started 11th, appeared to be the quickest Ram, but contact from another truck on lap 3 sent him spinning and off the lead lap. He rallied in the final stage to finish 12th.
Dye — The driver and crew worked to make the truck better throughout the race and gained a spot on the final lap to finish 17th.
Queen — The short-track racer battled midpack most of the race and appeared ready for a top-20 finish, but he cut down a tire and made heavy impact with the wall, which caused him to lose spots. He finished 24th.
Tyrrell — In his first street race, Tyrrell survived the early going and started to work his way up the field, gaining 10 spots in the first stage. Cut tires and wall contact with 20 laps remaining dropped him from contention and put him two laps down.
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series returns to action at 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 20, at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina.
Ram announced that Corey LaJoie will drive the No. 25 as the season’s fourth “Free Agent” driver at Darlington. Tony Stewart, Ty Dillon and Colin Braun were the first three “Free Agent” drivers behind the wheel of the No. 25.

Colin Braun

“I’m thankful for this opportunity with Kaulig Racing and Ram. They’ve been working really hard. It’s no secret that we weren’t the fastest, but this team is starting from ground zero, so to be able to build and get a good result is big. I learned a lot, and I think as a team, we learned what we needed to. I didn’t know what to expect going into this weekend. The other OEMs did a great job and were able to prep their guys a good bit. I feel like if we had some practice it may have been quite a game changer for me, but we started off on the back foot and were just behind from the drop of the green. Considering what we had yesterday, I’m pretty pleased with a top-10 finish.”

Justin Haley

“Overall, not a bad finish for this No. 16 Celsius Ram 1500 team. I didn’t know what to expect heading into the weekend. With hardly any practice, there were a ton of unknowns, but I could tell I would have some difficulties with braking during the race. We got spun early on and had to fight back to get the free pass position. Thankfully, Mike [Hillman Jr.] made some great adjustments on pit road. We were able to learn quite a bit, kept pushing and almost got a top 10 out of it. I’m looking forward to heading to Darlington next, one of my favorite tracks.”

Kaulig Racing PR