JR Motorsports is running it back in the Daytona 500 in 2026 with Justin Allgaier after a successful Cup Series debut in which they scored a top 10 in the No. 40 car with Traveller Whiskey.
It was a meaningful race for co-owners Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kelley Earnhardt-Miller, whom aren’t sure if racing full-time in the Cup Series will ever come to fruition, so having made at least one appearance in The Great American Race was a dream come true.
So the reason to come back for a second attempt is obvious.
“Well, Kelley will tell you that we race. We got a chance to go race, we race. We just wanna race,” Earnhardt said on Monday’s Dale Jr. Download. “The Daytona 500 is the most important race of the season, and I would say that it, for an open team or anybody that wants to enter the race, that probably is the best opportunity financially to do it and not lose money.
“It costs a significant amount of money to run any race, Talladega or whatever. If you wanna go run in the middle of the year or a couple races throughout the year, harder to make the financial work in them other events. This one, we’re just presented with opportunity to go do it. We got some partners that wanna go help us fund it.”
Allgaier is confirmed for the return trip to Daytona but it is still to be decided if the Hendrick Motorsports supplied team that includes veteran crew chief Greg Ives will all come back with the 2024 Xfinity Series champion.
“Our shop gets excited about it. They feel like it’s their effort,” Earnhardt said. “You see Rodney Childers chiming in on social media and you see our employees get pumped about the idea because it’s their car. It’s our flagship. But I will say this, more than likely, I don’t know for sure 100 percent, but if I had it my way, we would go with