$300M worth Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s NASCAR team goes through minor internal reshuffle

NASCAR veteran Dale Earnhardt Jr. is the co-owner of the Xfinity Series team JR Motorsports. JR Motorsports has recently announced a few changes in their crew, as reported by a NASCAR insider.

$300M worth Earnhardt Jr. is the son of seven-time Cup Series champion Dale Earnhardt Sr. In his NASCAR career, Dale Jr. has amassed 50 race wins across the Cup and Xfinity Series, of which 26 victories came in NASCAR's top division. Moreover, Jr. also secured back-to-back titles in the Xfinity Series in 1998 and 1999.

JR Motorsports fields four full-time Cup Series entries, all powered by Chevrolet. Sam Mayer drives the #1 car, while Justin Allgaier pilots the #7. Sammy Smith handles the #8 entry, and Brandon Jones is behind the wheel of the #9.

In a dramatic turn of events, it was recently announced that JR Motorsports has announced a crew chief shuffle within its NASCAR Xfinity Series team. Starting with Saturday’s Focused Health 250 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, crew chiefs Adam Wall and Phillip Bell will swap positions to optimize team performance. Fox Sports Bob Pockrass shared the news via a post on X (formerly Twitter).

"JR Motorsports swaps crew chiefs for Brandon Jones and Sammy Smith. ... Jones now has Adam Wall and Smith has Phillip Bell"

Furthermore, the team co-owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr. issued a statement via Toby Christie regarding this change in their crew chief lineup, explaining the need to do so.

“We are committed to doing all we can to get all four of our JRM teams into the playoffs and we feel like this change will give both Sammy and Brandon the best opportunities to make that happen. We fully believe in all of our race teams and are going to do whatever we can to ensure the success of everyone.”

Meanwhile, It was recently announced that after the end of his second year with JR Motorsports, their #9 driver Brandon Jones will return to Joe Gibbs Racing in the 2025 season.

---

Dale Earnhardt Jr. deems Darlington race winners "talented drivers" over the Brickyard 400

Xfinity Series champion Dale Earnhardt Jr. recently shared his opinion on the winners at Darlington in comparison with the prestigious Brickyard 400 earlier this year in a recent episode of the Dirty Mo Media podcast.

Earnhardt Jr. believes that winning a Cup race at Darlington is possibly the hardest race to conquer. The weird egg-shaped oval track witnesses excessive temperatures and is a benchmark for challenging a driver's endurance.

"It's the Everest of NASCAR, right? It is the hardest race to win... If you polled all of the NASCAR drivers, 'You get to win one, you want to win Darlington, the Southern 500 or do you want to win at Indianapolis, in the Brickyard 400?'" Dale Earnhardt Jr. said

"I think the majority are going to tell you Darlington and the reason is because they know that if you win there, it's like bona fide factual evidence that you are a race car driver, a talented driver, not just holding the steering wheel."