Kaulig Racing pulled the trigger on a major change for the final stretch of the 2026 season. On Wednesday, the team declared that Technical Director Mike Cook will assume control of the No. 10 car. He replaces Andrew Dickeson for the races at Martinsville Speedway and Homestead-Miami Speedway. This move comes after a tough year for driver Ty Dillon and his crew. The team offered no public reason for the sudden switch, but the numbers tell a clear story. Following 34 starts, Dillon holds 33rd position in the Cup Series standings with exactly 374 points. He has not won a race, earned a top-five finish, or posted a top-10 result this year.
Mike Cook brings a long resume to the pit box. He joined Kaulig Racing before the 2025 season after a long run at Stewart-Haas Racing. Cook worked as a lead engineer for multiple drivers including Kurt Busch and Chase Briscoe. He even helped win a championship with Kevin Harvick back in 2014. The team believes his steady hand is exactly what Dillon needs right now. “Andrew has the demeanor and stability that I think will give Ty the best opportunity he has ever had at the Cup level,” Cook said, according to Heavy.com. This quote shows the team sees this as a fresh start, not just a patch job.
The Numbers Don’t Lie About a Struggling Season
Let’s look at the hard facts from the track. Dillon’s average finish this season has dropped to 26.4. That is a step back from his 24.6 average in 2025. His best result in 2026 was a 12th place finish at Nashville Superspeedway. He also managed a 13th at Talladega and a 14th in the Daytona 500. Beyond those rare bright moments, his outcomes spanned from the high 20s to the 30s. He has only led three laps all year. His teammate AJ Allmendinger has won the head-to-head battle and holds a much higher spot in the points. When one driver is moving forward and the other is stuck in the mud, a change is usually the only way to break the cycle.
Dillon is a veteran with over 300 Cup starts. He knows these tracks better than most. He has 15 starts at Martinsville with a best finish of 13th back in 2019. He also has nine starts at Homestead-Miami with a best of 22nd in 2018. These are not new tracks for him. The issue is not a lack of experience. It is a lack of speed and consistency from the car. The team tried to fix the problem with strategy adjustments and incremental gains, but those moves did not work. Now they are betting on a new voice in the headset to get the job done.
From a coaching perspective, this is a classic film-room fix. You have a driver who knows the job. You have a new coach with a proven track record of winning. Cook knows how to run a race car at the highest level because he has done it before. In 2006, he served as an intern for Dale Earnhardt Inc. while also testing vehicles for the United States Army. That kind of grit fits right in with the hard-working culture Kaulig wants to build. The team is not giving up on Dillon, but they are willing to shake up the leadership to get better results.
The next two races are critical for the team’s morale. Martinsville is a short track that demands patience and precision. Homestead is an intermediate track that requires speed and clean air management. Dillon has history at both places, even if the results have been mixed lately. With Cook calling the shots, the team hopes to turn that history into a better finish. The rest of the field will be watching to see if this change sparks a turnaround. If Cook can help Dillon find the speed he lost, this could be the start of a new chapter. If not, the season will end on a low note for the No. 10 team.