JR Motorsports is trying a NASCAR Cup Collection race for the primary time.
The crew owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr. is coming into the 2025 Daytona 500 with Justin Allgaier behind the wheel. Allgaier gained the 2024 Xfinity Collection title and has pushed for JR Motorsports in NASCAR’s No. 2 collection since 2016.
The automotive will probably be sponsored by musician Chris Stapleton’s whiskey model.
“We’ve been ready for the suitable second for JR Motorsports,” Junior stated in a press release. “With Justin successful the Xfinity Collection championship and Chris Stapleton’s simple star energy, the planets aligned for this good alternative to enter this yr’s Daytona 500.”
Allgaier has completed within the prime 5 within the Xfinity Collection standings in every of the previous six seasons. His title in November was the primary of his profession.
JR Motorsports has been an Xfinity Collection mainstay since launching in 2005. Nonetheless, the crew hasn’t tried to maneuver as much as the highest collection in NASCAR like many different Xfinity Collection groups have achieved up to now 20 years. Junior retired from full-time NASCAR competitors on the finish of the 2017 season and has made at the very least one Xfinity Collection begin for the crew he co-owns along with his sister Kelley Earnhardt-Miller in each season since.
The crew’s Daytona 500 entry formally means there are greater than 40 automobiles trying to be within the 40-car 2025 Daytona 500 area. The No. 40 automotive is the forty first confirmed entry with automobiles anticipated to be fielded for Martin Truex Jr. and Jimmie Johnson. The No. 66 MBM Motorsports crew has stated that it’s coming into the race, however is now in want of a driver.
MBM stated Mike Wallace would drive its automotive, however inexplicably made the announcement earlier than Wallace was formally authorised by NASCAR. On Monday, the crew introduced that Wallace hadn’t been authorised by NASCAR. Wallace, 65, hasn’t competed in a nationwide collection NASCAR race on an oval since 2015.
Helio Castroneves is without doubt one of the drivers entered within the race and not too long ago introduced by NASCAR. If Castroneves does not qualify for the five hundred on pace by way of qualifying or by way of the Duel qualifying race, he’ll be added to the sector as a forty first automotive.