Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s team started in a shed in 1998 and grew into a Mooresville operation with Xfinity Series titles, driver development and a 2025 Daytona 500 entry.
JR Motorsports is a Mooresville, North Carolina team co-owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Rick Hendrick, among others. It began as a 1998 marketing division and has won several Xfinity Series championships.
JR Motorsports, pronounced Junior Motorsports, is an American stock car racing team based in Mooresville, North Carolina. It is held by Dale Earnhardt Jr., his sister Kelley Earnhardt Miller, L. W. Miller and Rick Hendrick, and it competes in the NASCAR Cup Series, the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series and several developmental series.
What does JR Motorsports field today?
The team fields the No. 40 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 part-time in the Cup Series for Justin Allgaier. It also runs four full-time entries in the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series, including the No. 1 for Carson Kvapil and Connor Zilisch, the No. 7 for Allgaier and the No. 8 for Sammy Smith.
Its race shop is a 66,000-square-foot facility near Mooresville, which reflects the scale the team has reached since its modest start.
A shed-based marketing division that grew into a Mooresville operation with Xfinity titles and a Cup entry.
How did the team begin?
The team started in a shed on Dale Earnhardt, Inc.'s grounds in 1998 with a single staffer. It was the marketing division of Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s race team. The business became a true race team only in 2002, once T. J. Majors was racing a street stock car at Concord Speedway.
The first win came at Motor Mile Speedway in Radford, Virginia, in 2004. The team in its current form began in 2006, when sponsorship from the United States Navy funded its return to the Xfinity Series, which had been planned for 2007 but was accelerated.
How did the driver development programme work?
In early 2019 JR Motorsports formed a development programme with GMS Racing, called Drivers Edge Development. Drivers raced in the JR Motorsports Late Model and O'Reilly Auto Parts Series teams, as well as in GMS Racing's Truck and K&N teams.
The first cohort, named on January 24, 2019, featured Gragson, Nemechek, Zane Smith, Creed, Mayer and Adam Lemke. The programme ended in 2023 when GMS Racing closed down.
Could JR Motorsports move to the Cup Series?
Dale Earnhardt Jr. first raised the idea of a Cup move in 2008, saying the team might go to the Sprint Cup Series if the right sponsorship and driver came along. The team did not move then, partly because NASCAR limited each owner to four Cup cars.
Rick Hendrick's stake in the team complicated any Cup move, since Hendrick Motorsports already fielded four cars. On April 11, 2021 Earnhardt Jr. hinted that the team might move up when the Next Gen car arrived in 2022. The challenge remained acquiring a charter and securing sponsorship.
How has the No. 40 Cup effort gone?
On January 15, 2025 it was announced that JR Motorsports, with Chris Stapleton, would enter the 2025 Daytona 500 with the No. 40 car, driven by Justin Allgaier. The number reflected the labelling of Stapleton's Traveller Whiskey, which was the car's primary sponsor.
Allgaier qualified through his duel and finished ninth in the race after starting nineteenth. On November 14, 2025 the team announced that it would enter the 2026 Daytona 500 with Allgaier and Traveller Whiskey for a second year.
Who drove the No. 1 car?
Elliott Sadler drove the No. 1 from 2016 to 2018. He won three races in 2016 and finished second in the standings. In 2017 he was second in points, behind only teammate William Byron. Michael Annett then drove the car from 2019 to 2021 and won his first career race at Daytona in 2019.
Sam Mayer took over the No. 1 in 2022, and he won at Road America and Watkins Glen in 2023. He finished third in the 2023 points standings, and he won the Charlotte Roval and Homestead races to reach the Championship 4. Carson Kvapil ran the car in 2025, and in 2026 he shared it with Connor Zilisch. Kvapil scored his first career win at Indianapolis.
How did the No. 7 and No. 8 cars develop?
Danica Patrick drove the No. 7 for 13 races in 2010 with GoDaddy.com sponsorship, and she ran a full schedule in 2012. Regan Smith won twice in the car in 2013, at Talladega and Michigan, and he won the 2014 DRIVE4COPD 300 at Daytona.
Justin Allgaier joined the No. 7 in 2016 with BRANDT sponsorship. He won five races in 2018 and claimed the 2024 Xfinity Series championship, his first. He also won at Las Vegas and Homestead in 2025 and was the 2026 regular-season champion.
The No. 8 became a JR Motorsports number in 2019, and Josh Berry drove it full-time from 2022. Berry won at Dover and Charlotte that year. Sammy Smith drove the No. 8 from 2024 to 2026, and Carson Kvapil will move into it for 2027.
How did the No. 9 car produce champions?
The No. 9 debuted in 2014 with Chase Elliott, an 18-year-old Hendrick development driver. Elliott won three races and the 2014 Nationwide Series championship, becoming the first rookie to win a NASCAR national series title.
William Byron drove the No. 9 in 2017 and won the championship and Rookie of the Year. Tyler Reddick won the 2018 championship in the car. Noah Gragson won four straight races in 2022, and Brandon Jones drove the car in 2023 and 2024.
Connor Zilisch won nine races in the 2025 season, and he finished second in the championship. Zilisch also won the Regular Season Championship and recorded his tenth and final win of the year at the Charlotte Roval.
What about the No. 88 and the Truck programme?
Earnhardt Jr. won his first Xfinity race for JRM in the No. 88 at Richmond on April 23, 2016, his first in that series in six years. The car also saw Brad Keselowski win four races in 2009, and Keselowski went on to Penske Racing after that season.
The team entered the Camping World Truck Series in 2015 with Cole Custer in the No. 00. The truck won twice that year, with Kasey Kahne at Charlotte and Custer at Gateway. JR Motorsports ended its truck racing in January 2017 to focus on the Xfinity Series.
What did the Late Model programme achieve?
The team's regional Late Model programme has run since 2002 and produced its own champions. Josh Berry, a driver with the squad since 2010, took the 2012 Motor Mile Speedway title in the weekly series. That season he worked through eighteen races, with six poles and fifteen top-five results, and it was the first title the team had won at any level.
Berry won a second track championship at Hickory Motor Speedway in 2014, and Christian Eckes ran the No. 1 Chevrolet in 2016 to finish fourth in the championship. Anthony Alfredo won two races for the team in 2017 and finished a close second to Berry, and Sam Mayer, then fourteen, won one race and finished fifth in the standings in 2018.
Carson Kvapil ran the No. 8 Late Model full-time in 2022 and won back-to-back championships in 2022 and 2023 before his move to the Xfinity Series. Connor Hall took over the No. 88 full-time in 2025, and Caden Kvapil drove it full-time in 2026.
How did the No. 5 car run in its early years?
The No. 5 car arrived in 2008 when the Hendrick Motorsports Nationwide operation was folded in. Jimmie Johnson, Earnhardt Jr., Truex, Martin, Landon Cassill, Ron Fellows and Adrian Fernandez all took turns in it, backed by Lowe's, National Guard and Godaddy.com.
The No. 5 won two races in 2008. Martin won at Las Vegas, and Ron Fellows won at Montreal, the first NASCAR race run in the rain. The car returned in 2009 with Fastenal, GoDaddy.com, Unilever and Delphi sponsorship, and its best finish was a third with Earnhardt Jr. at Atlanta.
What happened to the No. 88 after 2010?
Brad Keselowski, who had won four races for the team in 2009, left for Penske Racing after that season. Kelly Bires was signed to drive the No. 88 for two years, but he was removed after five races in 2010, and Earnhardt Jr. cited chemistry issues between the driver and the team's management.
Almirola, a former DEI development driver, stepped up from trucks to run the car full-time in 2011, finishing fourth in points in his first full-time season. Cole Whitt took over in 2012 and finished seventh in the points standings, losing the Rookie of the Year battle to Austin Dillon.
What was the No. 3 tribute win?
At the Daytona race in July 2010, the tribute car in the No. 3 Chevrolet carried Earnhardt Jr. to victory. It was the car's first Nationwide Series start, and the result was a fitting nod to the father whose number the car carried.
The No. 83 car had been planned as the tribute before the number changed. The switch to the No. 3 was made in 2010 with Richard Childress Racing, and the tribute became one of the team's most celebrated moments.
What are the team's key results at a glance?
| Year | Driver | Event | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Team | Motor Mile Speedway | First team win |
| 2014 | Chase Elliott | Nationwide Series | Series championship as a rookie |
| 2016 | Elliott Sadler | Xfinity Series | Second in the standings after three wins |
| 2016 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | Richmond | First JRM win in the No. 88 |
| 2017 | William Byron | Xfinity Series | Series championship and Rookie of the Year |
| 2018 | Tyler Reddick | Xfinity Series | Series championship in the No. 9 |
| 2024 | Justin Allgaier | Xfinity Series | First series championship |
| 2025 | Connor Zilisch | Xfinity Series | Nine wins and second in the championship |
| 2025 | Justin Allgaier | Daytona 500 | Ninth place after starting 19th |
Why does JR Motorsports matter?
JR Motorsports matters because it shows how a team with a famous name can turn a marketing division into a long-running race operation. Its Xfinity titles and its development system have produced champions and Cup-level talent.
The team also shows how a driver-owner can build a platform for others. The owners' combined reach, from Hendrick's support to Earnhardt Jr.'s fan base, gave the team a place in NASCAR's developmental ranks that it has kept for two decades.
