Dale Jr. reveals what's next for JR Motorsports after stunning Daytona 500 debut

NASCAR legend and co-owner of NXS team JR Motorsports, Dale Earnhardt Jr. opened up about JRM's future in the Cup Series after a strong debut performance in the Daytona 500 on Sunday, February 16. As a successful Xfinity team with four championships, Dale Jr. has long been trying to bring JRM to NASCAR's premier class. His dream came true in 2025 with Traveller Whisky as the primary sponsor of the No. 40 Chevrolet Camaro driven by defending NXS champion Justin Allgaier.

Allgaier secured his spot on the 41-car starting grid for Sunday's race by placing top-10 in the first qualifying Duel on Friday, February 14. He started the race from the 10th row and finished the race in P9, avoiding any major damage to his No. 40 car in most of the wrecks that happened throughout the 500-mile race.

Earnhardt Jr. was happy with the debut Cup Series result for JRM and in a recent episode of his podcast, the Dale Jr. Download, he spoke about the possibility of returning to the grid in 2025.

"I guess the thing is, everybody's wondering what's next for Junior Motorsports, I think that Traveller and those folks had a really great time. If they feel like it's worthwhile for them to put in another investment, to go run another race with that car at another track you know, Daytona or Talladega, maybe Daytona later this year that's to be determined. If they want to do that, we would probably do it, we'd probably just rerun it, and rack it up. So that's a possibility, we'll see," Dalr Earnhardr Jr. shared.

Speaking about the race itself on Sunday during post-race interviews, Dale Jr. expressed that he was thrilled with a top-10 result.

"If you told me we were going to finish 10th two months ago I would have been really thrilled with the result. Everything about the experience was good, even the challenges we faced," he shared (via jrmracing.com).

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Dale Jr. explains what it would take for JRM to run a second NCS race

JR Motorsports made its debut in NASCAR in 2025 in the NXS. In the two decades since it has competed, the team has seen quite a bit of success, with 90 race victories, four championships, 538 top-five, and 1049 top-10 finishes in 39 race starts.

Dale Jr. has long tried to get his hands on a Cup Series charter, but with NASCAR's rise in popularity, the price of charters has skyrocketed in the last few years. This has led him to rely on big sponsorships to even think about permanently entering into the top class of stock car racing. So while he desperately wants to have JRM compete in NCS, he is uncertain of what the future might hold for his team.

"The other side of it is, otherwise, I don't know that we're going to run another race this year. There would have to be another partner, or sponsor to walk in the door and say, 'Hey, we saw what you did, we want to be on your car for another, y'all going to run another race, we got this much money and we'd invest in this event and we'd like to run in this market can we do it?' right and that's a long conversation, so no plans to go run another race," Dale Jr. explained on his podcast (21:59 onwards).

JRM won the Xfinity Series championship in 2024 with Justin Allgaier and competes with four full-time teams. Carson Kvapil was announced as the new full-time driver for the No. 1 Bass Pro Shop Chevrolet Camaro in December 2024.