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Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kelley Earnhardt recently announced their team JR Motorsports will make its historic debut in the NASCAR Cup Series for a one-off race at the prestigious Daytona 500. The predominantly Xfinity team, led by seasoned crew chief Greg Ives, will attempt to qualify for the Great American Race with champion driver Justin Allgaier.
With a history of working as the shot-caller for JRM and Hendrick Motorsports, Ives has led Chase Elliott to his Xfinity Championship title and has called races for Hall of Famer Dale Jr.'s last couple of years of his full-time NASCAR career in the Cup Series. As a result, the JRM co-owner picked the veteran crew chief for the prestigious race at the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida.
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In a recent media interaction, two-time Daytona 500 winner Dale Jr. expressed his confidence in Ives while responding to a question from FanBuzz regarding the 'magic' he brings to qualifying.
"I saw how many times he's qualified a car on the front row at Daytona," Dale Earnhardt Jr said. "I'm like, do you have any magic left, Greg? Let's go to the track and see what we can do... It won't be easy. There will be some very tough competition. I was confident that Greg understood, better than anybody, the things that we would all need to gather into place to go there with the best opportunity we could."
It is worth mentioning that after Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s retirement, Greg Ives called the shots for HMS driver Alex Bowman, with the crew chief-driver duo qualifying twice in the pole position and four times in the second spot.
"We've always wanted to race in Cup Series": Dale Earnhardt Jr. makes his feelings known on JRM's Daytona 500 debut
The announcement of JR Motorsports' debut in the Cup Series has become a major milestone for Dale Earnhardt Jr. as an owner of the NASCAR team. As the North Carolina-based organization shared the news, the 50-year-old proclaimed his passion for racing and how they waited for the "right pieces to fall into place".
Dale Earnhardt Jr. told the media (1:30 onwards):
"We find a way to get to the racetrack and compete because that's what we've always done and what we want to do. And so, we've always wanted to race in the Cup Series, just waiting on the right pieces to fall into place. And yeah, so I hope that we can, for our fans, there will be some pressure to go out there, get the car in the field, and get it on the grid, so that we can all enjoy it."
Justin Allgaier will now be in action to qualify for the No. 40 Traveller Whiskey Chevrolet against drivers such as IndyCar legend Helio Castroneves and former Cup champion Martin Truex Jr.
