Earnhardt Jr taking one other have a look at a Cup future for JRM
Dale Earnhardt Jr. has all the time been fast to place the kibosh on the opportunity of JR Motorsports competing within the NASCAR Cup Sequence someday. However Saturday afternoon, after its driver Josh Berry gained the Xfinity Sequence race at Martinsville Speedway (pictured above), Earnhardt admitted that with the Subsequent Gen Cup automobile on the horizon, there had been a dialog between him and his sister and group co-owner, Kelley Earnhardt Miller, in regards to the considered taking their group into NASCAR’s high division.
“With the brand new automobile coming, me and my sister have actually talked slightly bit about whether or not that presents a possibility for JR Motorsports to enter the Cup Sequence,” Earnhardt stated. “I feel the constitution system makes it an enormous problem for us — that’s an enormous monetary problem for anyone making an attempt to get entangled within the Cup Sequence. Josh [Berry] would completely be a driver I’d have a look at if we had been going to construct a Cup program, however I’m simply making an attempt to get us right into a full-time Xfinity program with Josh. I’m simply making an attempt to get him into the Xfinity Sequence program the place he can proceed to show himself, and if the Cup Sequence is in our future, possibly Josh is the driving force that helps us make that occur.
“That’s pondering fairly massive throughout. However we used to say, ‘By no means. By no means going into the Cup Sequence.’ We love the place we’re at within the Xfinity Sequence; it’s a fantastic collection to have a variety of enjoyable in. You’ve got days like in the present day within the Xfinity Sequence, and we’ve bought a fantastic enterprise mannequin for that, however the brand new automobile compelled us to sit down down and have a dialog about whether or not we had been lacking the chance to enter the Cup Sequence sooner or later.”
Subsequent Gen is about to debut within the Cup Sequence subsequent February. It has been in improvement since late 2019 and was initially set to run this yr earlier than the pandemic halted issues altogether final spring after which slowed issues right down to the place NASCAR determined to push again its rollout.
Earnhardt’s JRM group has gained a number of championships within the Xfinity Sequence, together with 2018 with Tyler Reddick. Lesley Ann Miller/Motorsport Photographs
JR Motorsports has been a staple within the Xfinity Sequence. The corporate has driver championships with Chase Elliott, William Byron, and Tyler Reddick, and Earnhardt has been a group proprietor far longer, going again to Probability 2 Motorsports when he was nonetheless driving for Dale Earnhardt, Inc.
In line with Earnhardt, in an ideal world, you’d have a automobile in each run of the racing ladder and into the Cup Sequence. Berry is one instance of Earnhardt and JR Motorsports trying to present a path for drivers to develop or get their likelihood at shifting via the system, which incorporates the alliance with GMS Racing and the Drivers Edge improvement program.
“The racer in me would wish to have a automobile in each collection to only be racing, simply to be out on the observe competing,” Earnhardt stated. “Nevertheless it’s actually what comes down to creating monetary sense.”
The potential for ever going Cup Sequence racing can be the identical. And Earnhardt clarified that the dialogue hadn’t been all that deep however one thing that wanted to occur.
“When the brand new automobile comes out, I feel it’s important to ask your self, is that this a second for us to contemplate — if we’d ever get into Cup — is that this a time to have a look at what we’re doing and see if that is smart,” stated Earnhardt. “So, me and my sister have simply had some actually quick, private conversations about it that aren’t actually developed into something sturdy.
“I feel it might be irresponsible for us to not no less than have a look at what entering into Cup now with turnaround of the brand new gear, new race automobile, what meaning. As a result of entering into that collection is so laborious. The cash that you simply’re going to wish and require to race there and be aggressive greater than doubles. We don’t have a associate proper now that’s able to make a dedication like that, in order that positively retains the conversations fairly quick between me and Kelley. However I feel it’s important to cease and ask your self with this new automobile coming alongside (as a result of) it’s irresponsible to not, I feel.”
