Blake Koch and Kaulig Racing entered new territory at the beginning of 2016. On January 20, 2016, Matt Kaulig, the president and owner of Koch’s sponsor LeafFilter, announced the formation of Kaulig Racing. Kaulig Racing would be a single-car operation in the NASCAR XFINITY Series with Koch driving the No. 11 Chevrolet with LeafFilter serving as the primary sponsor. They would also announce that they would enter a technical alliance with Richard Childress Racing.
Koch entered the brand-new season looking to start on a fresh note. Before 2016, since making his debut back in 2009 and holding 147 starts in the series, Koch did not hold a single top 10 finish.
Once the 2016 season got underway, it wasn’t long before Koch would finish inside the top 10 for the first time of his career. He would quickly take Kaulig Racing to a ninth-place finish in the season opener at Daytona after starting in ninth.
“That was amazing,” Koch told SpeedwayDigest.com in an interview at Kansas Speedway in October on getting his first ever top 10 finish in the series. “A top 10 had been haunting me for six years now and we were able to do that the first race of the year. I was hoping we’d get one top 10 all year and to be able to take that pressure of myself that first race helped a lot.”
The next six events of 2016 wouldn’t go the brand-new team’s way as Koch would take home finishes 12th or worse in the No. 11 Chevrolet. The sixth race of the season at Texas Motor Speedway would end early after Koch sustained a crash on lap 143 of 200. The No. 43 of Jeb Burton and No. 4 of Ross Chastain would also fall a victim in the incident over in turn two. Chastain was the only driver able to continue on from the incident in the O’Reilly Auto Parts 300.
The team would roll into race eight at Richmond International Raceway looking to turn things around. Koch would qualify 16th on the speed chart and take his No. 11 LeafFilter Chevrolet to an eighth-place finish. It would give the Florida native his second career top 10 finish in the series.
Over the next seven races, Koch would take his team to finishes inside the top 25 as the series went into the halfway portion of the season. His best finish from race nine at Talladega Superspeedway to race 15 at Daytona International Speedway would come at Dover International Speedway where he would finish 12th. This would place Koch 12th in points as the series started the second-half of the year.
To kick off the second-half of the year, race No. 16 at Kentucky Speedway, Koch would start ninth and take his No. 11 Chevrolet to a 14th-place finish in the Alsco 300. He would go into the very next race at Loudon with momentum following the run at Kentucky. However, that momentum would not propel the team as they experienced a transmission issue on lap 159 of 200. The issue would end their day and they would sit 32nd in the finishing results.
The Florida native would turn the bad luck suffered at New Hampshire Motor Speedway around in the next two races at Indianapolis and Iowa Speedway. Koch would finish the afternoon in 15th at the historic 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway after starting the Lilly Diabetes 250 in 17th. The driver would start 13th at the 0.875-mile Iowa Speedway and would finish 13th later that evening. This provided some momentum as the XFINITY Series would go road course racing over the next three of the four races.
The very next race at Watkins Glen ended early for Koch and the No. 11 team as he would get into an eight-car crash on lap 19. The crash, which occurred over in the esses, also impacted Paul Menard, Darrell Wallace Jr., Tomy Drissi, Kyle Busch, Ryan Sieg, J.J. Yeley and Todd Bodine. Koch would finish the afternoon in 35th after starting the day in 14th.
Mid-Ohio and Bristol Motor Speedway provided great finishes for the Kaulig Racing team. They would capture 12th at Mid-Ohio and would grab another top 10 finish at Bristol Motor Speedway with an eighth. He would start those races from the 13th and 17th starting spots.
The next two races, race 23 at Road America and race 24 at Darlington Raceway, would give Koch finishes inside the top 20. He would capture an 18th at Road America and a 19th at Darlington. He would start the Road America 180 in ninth and the VFW Sport Clips Help a Hero 300 in 16th.
The No. 11 Chevrolet would finish the regular season with a pair of 15th-place finishes at Richmond and Chicagoland Speedway. Koch would be seeded 12th on the NASCAR XFINITY Series Chase Grid as the series went into NASCAR’s version of the playoffs for the first time ever.
Round one of the Chase would go well for Koch at Kentucky, Dover and Charlotte. The 30-year old would finish each of these races inside the top-15 to advance into the next round of the Chase at Kansas, Texas and Phoenix. However, despite scoring two top 10 finishes in three of those events, Koch would miss the final round of the Chase at Homestead-Miami Speedway by one spot in the standings. This would place Daniel Suarez, Elliott Sadler, Justin Allgaier and Erik Jones in the Round of 4. Koch would end the season with a 20th-place in the Ford EcoBoost 300 at Homestead.
Blake Koch and the No. 11 LeafFilter Chevrolet would end the year seventh in points. The Florida native held five top 10 finishes throughout the 33-race schedule in 2016 and finished the season completing 95.5 percent of the laps. They also had a clean season by having only three total DNF’s over the course of the year.
Koch will re-join Kaulig Racing to pilot the No. 11 Chevrolet for all 33-races in 2017. LeafFilter, a loyal partner of Koch since 2015 with TriStar Motorsports, will once again serve as the primary sponsor. Kaulig Racing and Richard Childress Racing will continue their technical alliance.
About Me: Brett has been following the sport of NASCAR since the beginning of the 2006 NASCAR Sprint Cup season. Since Brett was 13, he has had a passion of chasing a job in sports that not many get the opportunity of doing. He has been in the NASCAR media since the middle of the 2010 season. Since then, he has been a part of many racing podcast shows to improve his talents. He has written for racingonfuel.com and theracingwheel.com. Currently, Brett writes for motorsportsnat.com and TracksideChatter.com. You can find him on twitter @NASCAR_Brett.
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