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NASCAR XFINITY Series

Mid-Ohio Is Home For Matt Kaulig, Charity Before Racing

NASCAR Xfinity Series team Owner Matt Kaulig has a special connection with central Ohio. Born in Columbus and he met his wife in Akron. This is also where he began his Kaulig companies.

Earlier this week Kaulig partnered with the Cleveland Indians Charities for their Giveathon presented by Kaulig Racing. We partnered with the Indians, got our networks together and asked for donations. In the end we raised over 200,000 dollars. That money will go to multiple organizations around the Cleveland area.

The CIC also supports the Cleveland Baseball Federation, giving some 3,000 Cleveland youth under age 13, the opportunity to play baseball. Over 2,000 other kids also play on 142 rec teams every summer. In fact, outfielders Tyler Naquin and Jake Bauers helped distribute jerseys for those teams this year.

Matt Kaulig and his Kaulig Companies also invested in Progressive Field. Kaulig said they re-did the club seats and created a 5000 square foot premium suite. Kaulig adds that Major League Baseball has looked at it and said it may be the best experience in all of baseball.

There is a love for sports from Matt Kaulig and he is excited to invest in racing as well as baseball.

Racing At Home

But with the fun in Cleveland with the Indians behind him, now Matt Kaulig focuses his efforts to his two race teams at what he calls his home track. Mid-Ohio. Kaulig said it really feels good to come back here and see all of the support that he gets from the fan base. Kaulig is fielding both A.J. Allmendinger who gave up full time racing in 2019 to do work on tv for NBC, but he has enjoyed getting back in the car.

Allmendinger nearly scored the win last week for Kaulig Racing. In the end, Allmendinger came up short. And, for the second time this year failed post race inspection. Matt Kaulig spoke about those issues saying the team has identified the issue that has caused this issue and focused on making sure it wont happen again.

With those issues in the past, both of the Kaulig Racing cars went out to qualify early Saturday morning and after posting solid runs in both practices. Justin Haley led the opening practice but speeds continued to pick up and the best Allmendinger and Haley could do in qualifying were 6th and 13th respectively.

Qualifying

With the field  set, Matt Kaulig will enjoy seeing so many supporting faces around the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, in fact he said they have a hospitality tent set up just past the start/finish line and over 600 Kaulig employees have made their way down from Akron to take in today’s race.

There is a lot of confidence in this team, a lot of support at the home track and in fact, with Allmendinger nearly winning last week, he’s an odds on favorite, but with a love of road course racing, Matt Kaulig throws a ton of support behind his young full time driver. “Allmendinger is really fast and one of the best, but someone who is even faster–Justin Haley.

Kaulig said the team is really making some gains with Justin and the No. 11 car. The outlook is good as we head towards the playoffs. Kaulig adds that Justin (Haley) has one of the best finishing averages in the last handful of weeks.

Haley is really good at the road courses according to his boss, and the stats tend to back it up. Running 4th last week at Watkins Glen and closing on the leader until he got wrecked on a late restart. Watch out for both Kaulig Racing/Leaf Filters Camaros to have a shot at the end of today’s B&L Transport 170 at Mid-Ohio

Allmendinger is one of three prior winners in the field today.

 

If it races, I'll write about it, talk about it or shoot it with a camera. I began pursuing a career in motorsports journalism immediately after attending college at Kent State University. I have hosted multiple Motorsports talk shows, worked in Country Music radio, and now i spend every day on the air in the morning with 1300 and 100.9 WMVO and in the afternoons watching the roadways around Central Ohio for 93.7 WQIO. The excitement and the fans make everything I put out there worth while, it's been an exciting 15 years having covered everything from the Daytona 500 to the Rolex 24 and you can find me at pretty much any event run at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. What I like to bring is a look behind the scenes, a look at what and who makes the sport grow. From the guy that welds pieces back at the shop to the host in the tv booth. Everyone has a story and I like to tell it. My main focus here at TPF is looking at the men and women behind the microphone and cameras. My life long goal is to become a member of MRN or PRN Radio and bring the races to you. I hope that what I share now is enjoyable and gives you a unique look in to the world of motorsports. See you at a track soon

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