CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The team owned by NASCAR Hall of Fame driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. will attempt to make its Cup Series debut in the Daytona 500 with a champion from a lower circuit and a partnership with a Grammy Award-winning musician.
JR Motorsports has entered reigning Xfinity Series champion Justin Allgaier into next month’s season-opening “Great American Race” in a No. 40 Chevrolet sponsored by the whiskey label created by 10-time Grammy winner Chris Stapleton. Traveller Whiskey is a collaborative blend created by Buffalo Trace Distillery with Stapleton.
Allgaier will have to qualify for the Daytona 500 — a race his boss won in 2004 and again in 2014 before retiring from full-time competition after the 2017 Cup Series season — via either speed in time trials or one of the qualifying races at Daytona International Speedway. It marks the first time in JRM history the team has entered a race in the Cup Series, and Earnhardt said the team will be focused on qualifying via speed powered by a Hendrick Motorsports engine.
The deal came together when Stapleton, who has a friendship with Rick Hendrick, approached that team owner about a NASCAR collaboration with Traveller Whiskey. Hendrick put the country singer and songwriter in touch with Earnhardt as he also has an ownership stake with JRM.
“We had this whiskey, and I always have pie in the sky dreams of things to do, and we knocked on the door a little bit,” Stapleton told The Associated Press. “If I’m being 100% honest, I just thought it would be cool to see whiskey on a car. And he brought up Dale Jr., and I was like ‘Why wouldn’t we do that if we can?’ This is a lot of my audience, for both whiskey and country music, and what (Earnhardt) does in auto racing.”
The third-party introduction is helping Earnhardt and his sister, Kelley Earnhardt-Miller, attempt to make a dream come true for their race team.
“I shared with Rick that for a very long time that I had a dream, at one time in my life, of entering the Daytona 500 as a car owner,” Earnhardt told AP. “Rick presented the opportunity to connect with Chris and his team, they were interested in marketing in our sport, and Rick knew that I was wanting to fulfill this opportunity. It was like two people that wanted the same thing.”
The Earnhardts have led JRM to 88 victories on NASCAR’s second-tier Xfinity Series and four championships, with those titles won by drivers William Byron (2014), Chase Elliott (2017), Tyler Reddick (2018) and Allgaier last fall. JRM is starting its 24th year of overall competition with four cars in the Xfinity Series.
The Earnhardts have expressed interest in moving up to Cup Series competition, but JRM has balked at purchasing the eight-figure charter needed to compete.
Earnhardt said there have been no discussions on future Cup Series ventures for JRM beyond trying to make the Daytona 500. It will be a high-pressure situation for crew chief Greg Ives and his team as Earnhardt has warned them he and his sister will be hovering from the moment the car is unloaded at Daytona through every mile it turns on the track in Daytona Beach, Florida.
Stapleton also plans to attend what will be his first Daytona 500. He and Earnhardt said the musician was intricately involved in the car design, which Stapleton saw in person for the first time Wednesday.
“I’m a bit of a retro guy, I like things that are kind of a throwback,” Stapleton said. “So I was looking for a little bit of that flavor in the car, but also something that really blended JR Motorsports and Traveller Whiskey. It had to look like both of those things, and I think we achieved it.”
Aside from promoting his whiskey, Stapleton hopes the Daytona 500 turns into a core memory of his accomplished career.
“I wanted to build a thing, I wanted to see the car, and I want to see it run. And that, for me, would be the victory,” Stapleton said. “And I want the moment of it. It’s just like going to the Super Bowl and getting to stay on the sidelines. That’s what I want. I want the moment, the moment of the synergy that is happening.
“Whatever comes of it, we still did it.”
Allgaier, 38, is a former Cup Series driver who ran the Daytona 500 in 2014 and 2015. His most recent time in a Cup Series car was last May as the substitute driver for Kyle Larson as the Hendrick driver attempted to compete in both the Indianapolis 500 and NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on the same day.
Allgaier started the Cup Series race for Larson, who was late after weather delayed the Indy 500, and was credited with a 13th-place finish when the Coca-Cola 600 was called on account of rain at the track in Concord, North Carolina.
“This is an incredible honor to be driving JR Motorsports’ inaugural entry into the Cup Series,” Allgaier said. “Entering into the Daytona 500 has been a goal of this company for a long time, and I know that we are going to have everything we need to go out and contend for the win. This is going to be special for sure.”