“The desire to win on Sundays will always burn inside of me”: Daniel Hemric pens emotional note amid being snubbed by Kaulig Racing

Kaulig Racing announced today that Daniel Hemric will not mark his return in the 2025 Cup Series season. Matt Kaulig's organization has instead promoted their part-time Cup driver Ty Dillon to a full-time seat for the next season. The team will relinquish Hemric's #31 Chevy's rights and acquire #10 for Dillon.

Hemric drove full-time for Kaulig in the Xfinity Series for the 2022 and 2023 seasons. In his maiden year with the team, he also fielded part-time Cup Series entries and ran eight races, posting his best finish of ninth place at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana. However, after his final Xfinity season with Kaulig, the North Carolina native was upgraded to a full-time Cup seat for the 2024 season.

But Daniel Hemric hasn't showcased a promising performance and has netted four top-10s only, jeopardizing his prospects. Meanwhile, Ty Dillon's rumored entry as Kaulig's Cup driver gained traction in the community, and ahead of the Round of 12 opener at Kansas, the team broke silence with a confirmed contract for their part-time driver.

Following his exit from the team, Hemric shared an emotional parting note. An excerpt of his message reads as follows (via X).

"My family and I are sincerely grateful to Matt Kaulig and Chris Rice, as well as everyone at Kaulig Racing and Kaulig Companies, for welcoming me into their organization a few years ago, and giving me the rare opportunity to get back to the top level of our sport," Hemric wrote.

"The desire to win on Sundays will always burn inside of me. I'm focused and full of intention to finish the last seven races of this season as strong as we can while continuing to build on whatever the next chapter of this journey holds for me," the departing driver added.

Daniel Hemric will be seen at Kansas Speedway next, starting his final 7-race slate for Kaulig Racing.

"Looking forward to what 2025 brings": Ty Dillon on his full-time contract with Kaulig Racing as he is set to replace Daniel Hemric

Ty Dillon ran four consecutive seasons with Germain Racing before the team shut down its operations after the 2020 season. As a result, in 2021, he moved to Gaunt Brothers Racing on a part-time schedule, and in 2022, Dillon secured a full-time seat with Petty GMS Racing.

But in 2023, the 32-year-old anchored a full-time contract with Spire Motorsports for the #77 Chevrolet. However, Dillon downsized his operations to a partial schedule with Kaulig Racing, after being replaced by Carson Hocevar for the 2024 season.

Though Dillon is on a full-time Truck Series schedule with Rackley-Willie Allen Racing, he competed in four Xfinity races for Kaulig- twice at Richmond Raceway and once each at Texas Motor Speedway and New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Ahead of his full-time future with Kaulig, Daniel Hemric's replacement driver expressed being "grateful" for the opportunity. He said (via Kaulig Racing's official release).

“I am incredibly grateful for another opportunity to run full-time in the Cup Series, and to be able to do it with the men and women at Kaulig Racing means a lot to me personally. They gave me a chance this year to go out and prove myself in a handful of starts. The team and I were able to connect early on and we put together a few strong runs in the No. 16. I’m really looking forward to what 2025 brings with this team. We have a bright future ahead of us and we’re going to give it our all each and every race next season," Dillon said.

That said, Daniel Hemric's NASCAR future is hanging by a thread and there are three potential spots that the departing driver could land upon.