JR Motorsports is working it again within the Daytona 500 in 2026 with Justin Allgaier after a profitable Cup Collection debut by which they scored a high 10 within the No. 40 automotive with Traveller Whiskey.
It was a significant race for co-owners Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kelley Earnhardt-Miller, whom aren’t certain if racing full-time within the Cup Collection will ever come to fruition, so having made at the very least one look in The Nice American Race was a dream come true.
So the rationale to return again for a second try is clear.
“Effectively, Kelley will inform you that we race. We obtained an opportunity to go race, we race. We simply wanna race,” Earnhardt mentioned on Monday’s Dale Jr. Obtain. “The Daytona 500 is a very powerful race of the season, and I’d say that it, for an open group or anyone that wishes to enter the race, that in all probability is the perfect alternative financially to do it and never lose cash.
“It prices a major amount of cash to run any race, Talladega or no matter. In the event you wanna go run in the midst of the yr or a pair races all year long, tougher to make the monetary work in them different occasions. This one, we’re simply introduced with alternative to go do it. We obtained some companions that wanna go assist us fund it.”
Allgaier is confirmed for the return journey to Daytona however it’s nonetheless to be determined if the Hendrick Motorsports equipped group that features veteran crew chief Greg Ives will all come again with the 2024 Xfinity Collection champion.
“Our store will get enthusiastic about it. They really feel prefer it’s their effort,” Earnhardt mentioned. “You see Rodney Childers chiming in on social media and also you see our staff get pumped concerning the thought as a result of it’s their automotive. It’s our flagship. However I’ll say this, greater than possible, I don’t know for certain one hundred pc, but when I had it my manner, we’d go together with precisely the identical parts, individuals and personnel as we did final yr.
“Justin’s gonna drive the automotive. Final yr, we had Greg Ives because the crew chief. We had [Barry] Hoover come out of retirement, my previous automotive chief man. I’d have every part because it was. That was an incredible, enjoyable group of individuals. All of them wished to be there, all of them cared about it. That hopefully comes collectively.”
Regardless of the top-10 with a succesful crew and driver, Earnhardt is already nervous about even making the present since he doesn’t have a constitution that locks them into the race. It’s the brand new Chevrolet Camaro physique fashion that has him nervous.
“I’m nervous as a result of we’re going to have a brand new physique,” Earnhardt mentioned. “Anytime a producer will get a brand new physique, they don’t go to Daytona and carry out higher. You’re determining sort of what makes that physique carry out at a monitor like that. I don’t know particulars, I simply shoot it straight. Each time a producer modifications the physique, they’re making an attempt their greatest in each manner, when a brand new physique is coming in, to make their automobiles extra aggressive on the tracks that we race essentially the most.
“They’re at all times making an attempt to place a personality line in there or fudge the quarter panel, or regardless of the nostril in such a manner they’re working with the groups to go, ‘Hey man, that is what we want, this might make us higher. Effectively, let’s see if we are able to get it handed via. Will NASCAR settle for it?’ NASCAR will run it via some checks and aero and stuff like that to ensure it’s not like this huge benefit akin to the opposite producers.”
So, with all of that in thoughts, Earnhardt is tempering expectations.
“You bought to rein all of the expectations again in to man, we simply obtained to get within the present. Let’s get within the present. We’re not locked in,” Earnhardt mentioned. “New physique, don’t know the way the automotive will qualify. We thought we have been gonna do alright final yr and we didn’t in qualifying. I’ll be apprehensive about our alternative in simply pure velocity on qualifying. We might have to return and race our manner in.
“… You simply need to get there and roll the automotive out for Sunday morning and put it on the grid. That’s a proud second, pushing a automotive out on to the grid and standing there watching your driver. That’s a proud second. … Hopefully we are able to return. It’ll be laborious to recreate the expertise and the success we had final yr. So, all people must be sensible.”
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