JR Motorsports entered the 2026 NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series season with four full-time cars, but only two drivers lined up to drive any of those cars full-time.
Carson Kvapil, after spending his rookie season behind the wheel of the No. 1 Chevrolet full-time a year ago, was to split time in that car with Connor Zilisch, the full-time driver of the No. 88 Chevrolet from his own rookie season a year ago who was promoted to the Cup Series with Trackhouse Racing for 2026.
As it turns out, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and company found a way to keep Kvapil in the fold full-time after all, following his surprise run to the 2025 Championship 4 after his effective "demotion" to part-time had already been announced.
In races that Zillisch drove the No. 1 car, Kvapil would either drive the team's fifth part-time entry, the No. 9 Chevrolet, or run the No. 91 Chevrolet for DGM Racing with Jesse Iwuji Motorsports.
Keeping Kvapil around full-time paid off, as he won the first two races of his career at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Iowa Speedway and is set to start the nine-race postseason as the No. 2 seed, trailing only teammate Justin Allgaier, who still drives the No. 7 Chevrolet full-time.
The other gamble had to do with Zilisch's replacement in the No. 88 car. Instead of committing to a single driver, JR Motorsports opted to have Hendrick Motorsports' four Cup drivers run a total of 10 of the 24 regular season races in that car this year. Alex Bowman ended up not running any, so Kyle Larson ran five instead of three, but William Byron still ran three and Chase Elliott still ran two.
Zilisch's primary replacement was Rajah Caruth, who ran the other 14 of 24 regular season races behind the wheel of the No. 88 Chevrolet. Caruth flirted with the top 12 playoff cut line for most of the regular season.
Caruth, like Kvapil, still competed full-time, despite spending time behind the wheel of multiple cars. In the other 10 races, he drove the No. 32 Jordan Anderson Racing Chevrolet.
But with the No. 88 team third in the owner standings, and the No. 32 team all the way down in 19th, whether Caruth would have enough time in top-tier machinery to have a shot at qualifying for the postseason was a major question as the regular season progressed.
After dropping from 12th to 15th in early May with a crash at Texas Motor Speedway, he remained below the cutoff for 12 consecutive races, at one point falling to as many as 48 points behind.
But a strong performance in the regular season finale at Daytona International Speedway, which included a stage win even though it ended with a 32nd place finish after an incident, was enough to get Caruth back above the cutoff, just five and six points clear of Joe Gibbs Racing teammates William Sawalich and Brent Crews, respectively.
And unlike during the regular season, he is now set to spend the entire postseason in the No. 88 car, a car that has proven it is capable of running at the front on a regular basis.
Six of Caruth's eight top 10 finishes during the regular season came in the No. 88 Chevrolet, including his two best results, a fourth place finish at Rockingham Speedway and a runner-up finish at Iowa Speedway. He also earned the pole at Daytona this past week to kick-start a race in which his 18 stage points ultimately made the difference between qualifying and not qualifying for the playoffs.
Caruth still has a major hole to dig out of, as he is set to start the playoffs as the 12th and final seed, 80 points behind Allgaier. But after spending no more than three straight races in the same car at any point during the regular season, he is set to spend his entire playoff run in championship-caliber machinery.
And now JR Motorsports, despite only entering the year with two cars tied exclusively to full-time drivers, have four drivers competing for the championship and four cars competing for the owner championship, with all four drivers set to be in the same cars for the rest of the year.
Darlington Raceway is scheduled to get the 2026 NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series playoffs underway this Saturday, September 5, with live coverage of the Fleetio 200 set to be provided by the CW Network starting at 7:00 p.m. ET. Begin a free trial of FuboTV and catch all of the action from the track "Too Tough To Tame"!
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