Just one race into the 2025 NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series (then Xfinity Series) playoffs, it was announced that rookie Carson Kvapil would not be back full-time with JR Motorsports in 2026.
Instead, he would share the No. 1 Chevrolet with Connor Zilisch, whose 10-win rookie season resulted in a promotion to the Cup Series with Trackhouse Racing, in an effort to boost the No. 1 team's chances to win the owner championship.
As a Cup rookie, Zilisch would not be bound by the lower series restrictions placed on Cup drivers with at least three years of experience. His deal ended up including nine races, which was actually within the newly relaxed 10-race limit for those other drivers anyway.
Skip ahead a couple weeks after the announcement of Kvapil's demotion, and he somehow managed to work his way into the Championship 4 on points, despite still being in pursuit of his first career victory.
And once the season ended, JR Motorsports, after reducing his role to part-time for year number two, brought him back into the fold as a full-time driver for 2026 after all.
Carson Kvapil rewarding JR Motorsports' decision as a championship contender
They confirmed that they planned to add a fifth car, the No. 9 Chevrolet, for select races, and that Kvapil would drive that entry from time to time. And in races that both the No. 1 car and No. 9 car were already occupied, the latter typically by a Cup driver as well, Kvapil would drive the No. 91 Chevrolet for DGM Racing with Jesse Iwuji Motorsports.
Now 22 races into the 2026 season, Kvapil has switched cars a total of 16 times, and he's switched teams eight times. Despite playing musical race seats for the first five and a half months of the season, he sits second in the point standings, following his first career win on Saturday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Kvapil led the first 1-2-3-4 finish in O'Reilly Series history for JR Motorsports, and his success has played a role in another 1-2-3-4.
The No. 1 team is second in the owner standings behind teammate Justin Allgaier's No. 7 team, and the No. 9 team is 15th, placing it just 56 points below the top 12 postseason cut line despite having run just 14 of those 22 races. In terms of average points per race, it's fourth, and Kvapil has played a role in that success as well, finishing no lower than 11th in his five starts in the car.
Third in the standings and in average points is the No. 88 team, another JR Motorsports team operating similarly to the No. 1 team. Rajah Caruth was named the primary replacement for Zilisch after the 2025 season, but 10 of the 33 races were split up between the Hendrick Motorsports Cup drivers.
Carson Kvapil heating up, making an impact
But even beyond his success at JR Motorsports, Kvapil has not disappointed. In a DGM Racing entry that only Cup driver Ross Chastain has also managed to put into the top 10 this season, Kvapil has posted two top 10 results and an average finish of 12th in four starts.
This is a team that's 26th in the owner standings, yet Kvapil has been able to use this ride to stay afloat – and then some – in his selection of non-JRM starts.
Sure, the fact that he couldn't win at a top-tier team in JR Motorsports was always a question, especially with five runner-up finishes to his name before his Brickyard breakthrough. Those five P2 finishes included on in the previous race at EchoPark Speedway (Atlanta Motor Speedway), where he also finished second in 2025.
Why did Kvapil win zero races as a rookie to Zilisch's 10 with the same race team? Why did Zilisch win two races in the same car as a part-time driver earlier this year? Why couldn't Kvapil win a single race while Allgaier's six wins effectively allowed him to clinch the regular season title in late June?
Now it's no longer a talking point, and while beating this year's dominant driver in Allgaier over the course of the nine-race postseason won't be easy, regardless of where Kvapil is seeded, the 23-year-old Mooresville, North Carolina native is both heating up and gaining much-needed confidence at the perfect time.
Despite having switched cars 10 times and teams six times over the course of the 11 most recent races alone, he's posted an average finish of 7.45 during that stretch, with his top two finishes coming in back-to-back races – the first pair of two consecutive races, by the way, in which he's actually been in the same car since April.
Not even Allgaier has been that consistent over the late spring and summer months.
Suffice it to say the decision to give Kvapil back his status as a full-time driver was the best decision Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s race team could have possibly made.
Now he's set to spend the rest of the season, including the final two regular season races and the nine playoff "Chase" races, in JRM's No. 1 car.
Don't look now, but the driver who supposedly couldn't win in top-tier equipment could suddenly play a major role in this year's championship battle, not even one year after he was initially informed he would no longer be on the grid full-time.
The Hy-Vee PERKS 250 is the penultimate race on the 2026 NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series regular season schedule, and it's scheduled to take place on Saturday, August 8 following the off week. Live coverage from Iowa Speedway is set to begin at 5:00 p.m. ET on the CW Network. Begin a free trial of FuboTV and catch all of the action!
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