DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — With a well-known final identify and a resume worthy of it, Dale Earnhardt Jr. contemplated if proudly owning a NASCAR Cup Sequence workforce was really his future.
JR Motorsports, the Xfinity Sequence workforce he and Kelley Earnhardt Miller have helmed since 2005, has gone on to web rousing success with 88 wins and 4 drivers championships within the stock-car rank simply beneath the top-level Cup Sequence, the place Earnhardt Jr. and his late father Dale Earnhardt, a seven-time champion, loved vital success.
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Getting JRM to the Cup Sequence has lengthy been a need for Dale Jr. He simply wasn’t positive the place that motive originated.
“Generally you surprise, due to rising up within the sport and your final identify, are you making your self do that as a result of it’s what you suppose you’re purported to do? Do you actually wish to do it?” Earnhardt Jr. stated Sunday.
He discovered after the 2025 Daytona 500 that the reply is a powerful sure.
JR Motorsports made its Cup debut look within the 67th annual “Nice American Race” with reigning Xfinity champion Justin Allgaier piloting the No. 40 Chevrolet to a outstanding ninth-place end in this system’s inaugural outing. A historian of the game — and a two-time Daytona 500 champion himself — Earnhardt Jr. felt no want to cover his elation after an emotionally attempting but tremendously rewarding Speedweeks.
“It actually was good for me, I feel, to return right here and expertise this to see if it was really one thing that I felt like I needed,” Earnhardt Jr. stated. “[…] I feel this helped me perceive that I do wish to be right here personally. I do really feel prefer it’s what I needs to be striving for.”
A revelation all the identical, there’s little, if any, shock that Earnhardt discovered the reply he was searching for. Earnhardt has longed for an opportunity to see his workforce increase into Cup. However now that this Daytona 500 effort confirmed any of these lingering questions, one stays: How does JRM discover its method to full-time standing on Sundays?
“We’re all the time prepared. Have been for years, so we’ll see,” Earnhardt stated. “Once we began placing this deal collectively, I instructed Kelley, you by no means know what this expertise may drum up and by way of curiosity for some companions that wish to assist us get right here full time.”
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Earnhardt understands if followers are exhausted after listening to rumors of JRM’s curiosity in Cup racing with out a definitive timeline or path to that second’s rise. However for him and Earnhardt Miller to contest a full-time workforce within the NASCAR Cup Sequence, the timing has all the time needed to be proper. That features doing it with the best companions to offer the mandatory funding. This time, it was nation music star Chris Stapleton and his model, Traveller Whiskey, who helped carry the No. 40 Chevrolet to the monitor. Whether or not it’s Traveller Whiskey sooner or later or different sponsors, Earnhardt hopes the best scenario comes alongside to assist JRM attain its final Cup Sequence aspirations.
“We’ve been on the telephone and on the desk with different folks that have been concerned about investing in charters that didn’t work out,” Earnhardt stated. “However we may have some model new conversations. So that you simply wait and see. If it’s meant to be, it’ll occur.”
What was meant to be Sunday night time was a splendid efficiency from Allgaier, who proved JRM employed the best driver and the best crewmen to struggle for 502.5 miles round Daytona Worldwide Speedway. A staple of NASCAR’s nationwide sequence since 2009 (and with sporadic begins prior), Allgaier muscled by means of a number of on-track mishaps within the “Nice American Race” to attain his second profession Cup Sequence high 10 in his 83rd begin, netting his first such end result since an eighth-place end at Bristol Motor Speedway in 2015.
As he stood on pit highway subsequent to his chariot, Allgaier seemed again and noticed the whole left-front fender ripped from his Chevrolet, the story of his night time, he stated, was “perseverance.”
“When you realize you’re coming for a one-off, you realize that that is going to be a novel expertise,” Allgaier stated. “Individuals, gear, instruments. I imply, there’s a lot stuff. I’ve already stated it as soon as, however simply so grateful to having nice individuals round us. Grateful for Hendrick Motorsports giving us a man like Greg Ives to have the ability to use as a crew chief and have extra data, proper?
“I feel that this automobile has closed the hole a lot to all the things we’ve ever carried out, and to begin a workforce on this sport proper now’s so laborious. And what we achieved at this time, it wasn’t fairly. We weren’t the quickest automobile on the race monitor all night time. We didn’t do one of the best factor all night time. I didn’t make the best strikes 99% of the time. However when it’s all stated and carried out, we got here out of right here with a race automobile that rolls and a stable high 10 end. It’s laborious to be unhappy about that. However, man, I’m actually pleased with what they achieved and for permitting me to be a very sensible a part of it.”
Earnhardt believes that JR Motorsports “may be profitable right here” if it certainly works its method to the Cup Sequence on a full-time foundation. So whereas Allgaier could have achieved JRM’s first top-10 end in Cup, Earnhardt sees extra forward.
“I feel that with the brand new constitution mannequin, it’s extra economical to be right here,” Earnhardt stated. “And so I really feel like with our capacity to attract curiosity by way of sponsorship and assist, it’s a cheap mannequin for us with the brand new constitution settlement, and I really feel like that the charters will proceed to extend in worth. So if there’s anyone that watches what we’re doing right here that’s not concerned within the sport however would make investments on this, we’d be an excellent companion to think about as a result of we all know we now have an excellent enterprise mannequin within the Xfinity Sequence. We all know we now have the power to carry sponsor curiosity to our groups to have the ability to assist fund our operation.
“However I feel the general hurdle is the preliminary funding within the constitution. And I can put some cash in, however I can not — I can’t, even when I had it — I’d not purchase the whole factor myself. I can’t threat my youngsters’ inheritance and future on some concept of my very own. That’s a egocentric factor. However I will surely wish to be an investor in any constitution that we’d be concerned in. And the charters, I feel, are on the worth now to the place you nearly should have companions to get in if you happen to’re anyone like myself. However we’ll see.”
Within the meantime, the joys of competing and succeeding within the Daytona 500 is a second the Earnhardts and all concerned will savor perpetually.
“I’ll bear in mind this race for a very long time,” Allgaier stated. “Whatever the end or any of the opposite stuff, simply the feelings of the entire week. I’ll bear in mind this expertise for a very long time.”
