With confirmation that JR Motorsports is working on a NASCAR Cup Series program, here are five drivers who could get behind the wheel of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Cup Series car.
Prior to the 2022 NASCAR race weekend at Nashville Superspeedway, 15-time Most Popular Driver Award winner, NASCAR Hall of Famer, and JR Motorsports co-owner Dale Earnhardt Jr., along with longtime friend and podcast co-host Mike Davis, shared beers with fans at Ole Red during the taping of a live episode of The Dale Jr. Download.
Just about 15 minutes into the show, Dale Jr. broke some long-speculated news: “JR Motorsports absolutely wants to be in the Cup Series.”
Kelley Earnhardt Miller, Dale Jr.’s sister and co-owner and vice president of JR Motorsports, reinforced her brother’s comments on NASCAR Radio on SiriusXM, stating that JR Motorsports is actively working on their Cup program alongside their successful Xfinity Series operation.
The cost of charters, which soared as high as $12 million during the 2021-2022 offseason, was cited as the primary reason why the team didn’t pursue a Cup team for 2022, and unless a major development or shift occurs, the team likely won’t enter in the Cup Series full-time in 2023 either.
But if and when they do enter the Cup Series, who will be their driver? Here are five possibilities.
Possible JR Motorsports Cup drivers: No. 1 – Any current Xfinity driver
JR Motorsports have fielded Xfinity cars for numerous drivers who have eventually earned full-time rides in the NASCAR Cup Series, including Chase Elliott, William Byron, and Brad Keselowski.
Dale Jr.’s team currently has four talented full-time drivers: Sam Mayer, Justin Allgaier, Josh Berry, and Noah Gragson. It’s very possible that any of these four drivers could make an appearance in a JR Motorsports Cup car because of their talent and current affiliation with the team.
Mayer, who is still eyeing his first Xfinity Series win, would be the least likely of the four to make an appearance in the Cup Series, given his lack of experience.
Berry, who doesn’t have too much more experience in the Xfinity Series, has found victory lane four times in the last year and a half. He has driven for the organization’s late model team for a number of years, and the boss man himself even said that Berry would be a good driver with whom to start a Cup team.
The team’s more seasoned drivers, Allgaier and Gragson, have a heavier case to be made. Allgaier has multiple years of experience driving in the Cup Series, but due to issues with the organization that fielded his car, he made the decision to move away from full-time Cup Series racing and hasn’t given any indication that he would attempt it again. But he has made occasional Cup Series starts over the past three years.
Gragson has been making Cup Series starts in Kaulig Racing’s #16 Chevrolet this season, earning valuable track time in the Next Gen car. This could factor into how much time he gets driving a JR Motorsports Cup car in the years to come.
Possible JR Motorsports Cup drivers: No. 2 – Miguel Paludo
For a number of years, JR Motorsports have brought in drivers to race part-time to help improve their team at different race tracks.
Ron Fellows was brought in for a number of years to run select road course races to help the team improve in that area. Cup Series stars such Kevin Harvick and Mark Martin also made a number of appearances behind the wheel of Dale Jr.’s cars, primarily on intermediate tracks.
In 2021, Brazil’s Miguel Paludo joined JR Motorsports to run part-time on road courses, with the support of BRANDT.
Paludo’s performances in JR Motorsports equipment have been a bit underwhelming, as he has finished outside of the top 25 in three of his five starts in 2021 and 2022. Despite his rather poor finishes, however, he often runs in the back half of the top 10 or just outside of it, and he has scored two top 10 finishes in those five starts.
The talent is there, despite what his statistics may indicate, and with his background in road course racing and his existing partnership with JR Motorsports, it is possible that, should the organization field a Cup car, Paludo will get an opportunity to compete in a road course race.
Possible JR Motorsports Cup drivers: No. 3 – Martin Truex Jr.
Martin Truex Jr. has been a driver at the center of attention in terms of off-track activity over the past few weeks. The 2017 NASCAR Cup Series champion entered 2022 in a contract year with Joe Gibbs Racing, and many believed that retirement was imminent.
But Truex instead announced he would return to the #19 Toyota for 2023, prior to the race weekend at Nashville Superspeedway. Later that week when Dale Earnhardt Jr. mentioned that JR Motorsports wanted to enter the Cup Series, he specifically noted that he hoped Truex would help to start the team.
Dale Jr. and Truex have a relationship that dates back to the early 2000s. Dale Jr. gave Truex his first opportunity in the big leagues when the two paired up at Chance 2 Motorsports, an Xfinity Series team founded and owned by Teresa Earnhardt and Dale Jr. following the death of Dale Earnhardt Sr.
Truex competed under the Chance 2 Motorsports banner six times in 2003 and went on to bring the team to two championships in 2004 and 2005. At that time, Chance 2 Motorports dissolved and Truex moved to the Cup Series behind the wheel of the #1 Chevrolet for Dale Earnhardt, Inc. as Dale Jr.’s teammate. He competed for the team from 2006 to 2008.
With at least one more full season with Joe Gibbs Racing in Truex’s future and no current indication that he’d be interested in running with JR Motorsports in 2024, there is really no telling whether Dale Jr.’s wish could come to fruition. But there is still time.
Possible JR Motorsports Cup drivers: No. 4 – Jimmie Johnson
Since the very first time he competed in the NASCAR Cup Series, Jimmie Jonson has been racking up achievements.
In 19 full seasons as a Cup Series driver, he scored 83 wins, including two Daytona 500 wins and four Brickyard 400 wins, won a history-tying seven championships, including a record-smashing five in a row, and amassed a long list of records and achievements that will land him in the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
Johnson and former Hendrick Motorsports teammate Dale Jr. have a long-standing relationship that started even before the two were teammates at Rick Hendrick’s team, but Johnson has taken a very different “retirement” path than Earnhardt has.
Johnson ran part-time in the NTT IndyCar Series in 2021 and entered the 2022 Indy 500 as part of his first full season in the series. He has also run a handful of IMSA endurance races, including the 24 Hours of Daytona.
During Indy 500 race week this past May, Johnson admitted that he has considered attempting the Memorial Day Double, which consists of running the Indy 500 during the afternoon and the Coca-Cola 600, NASCAR’s longest race, later in the evening.
Only four drivers have ever attempted the feat, but with sponsors and manufacturers becoming more restrictive, in addition to the two races being so close together in timing, no driver has attempted it since Kurt Busch in 2014.
Johnson has sponsors, including Ally Bank, who have supported his ventures into different forms of motorsport, and as long as TV networks and sanctioning bodies work together to create the opportunity for Johnson, JR Motorsports would be a perfect fit for the future Hall of Famer to make his Cup Series return.
Possible JR Motorsports Cup drivers: No. 5 – Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Even though he retired from full-time NASCAR racing post-2017, Dale Earnhardt Jr. still has the competitive itch to get behind the wheel of a race car. He has run one Xfinity Series race in a JR Motorsports car each year since he retired, with his most recent start coming at Martinsville Speedway in April 2022.
The NASCAR Hall of Famer also recently announced that he would be entering a late model event at North Wilkesboro Speedway in August after helping save the track from becoming a lost speedway.
Shortly after he finished in 11th place at Martinsville Speedway back in April, Dale Jr. stated that he’d “try again next year”, implying that his mind is already focused on what race he might compete in next year.
Earnhardt has already been behind the wheel of the Next Gen car for test sessions, once at Bowman-Gray Stadium and once at Daytona International Speedway in a car prepared by Hendrick Motorsports, so it isn’t unrealistic to think that he could get back behind the wheel of a Cup car again.
He has said that driving in the Cup Series again was out of the cards, but a return to the series wouldn’t be the first time he has gone on to do something he said would never happen.