JR Motorsports
Founded: 1998 (shed operation); race team 2002 Headquarters: 349 Cayuga Drive, Mooresville, NC (66,000 sq ft) Owners: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kelley Earnhardt Miller, L.W. Miller, Rick Hendrick
Overview
JR Motorsports is the most complete racing operation in NASCAR that doesn't run a full-time Cup Series program. What started as a marketing division in 1998 and became a race team with a street stock entry at Concord Speedway in 2002 has grown into a multi-series organization that runs competitive programs at virtually every level of stock car racing simultaneously.
NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series
JRM fields up to five O'Reilly Series entries and has won four series championships: Chase Elliott (2014), William Byron (2017), Tyler Reddick (2018), and Justin Allgaier (2024). Allgaier leads the 2026 standings by 250 points after winning at Pocono on June 14, his fifth victory of the season and his first ever at Pocono, the one big track that had kept beating him. At Texas on May 2, JRM went 1-2: Kyle Larson held off Allgaier through a 17-lap closing green-flag run, with Connor Zilisch (sharing the No. 1 with Carson Kvapil) winning Stage 2 of the same race before fading to 21st in the final segment. At Bristol on April 11, JRM put four of its entries in the top five: Zilisch won, Larson (guest in the No. 88) finished second, Allgaier fourth, and Carson Kvapil fifth.
2026 O'Reilly Series Lineup:
- No. 7 — Justin Allgaier (2024 champion, points leader)
- No. 1 — Carson Kvapil / Connor Zilisch (shared)
- No. 8 — Sammy Smith
- No. 9 — Brandon Jones
- No. 88 — Rajah Caruth (plus select Cup driver starts)
CARS Tour & Late Model Stock
JRM's Late Model program is the entrance exam. Bryan Shaffer runs it — the same crew chief who guided Carson Kvapil to back-to-back CARS Tour championships in 2022 and 2023, then handed the car to Connor Hall for a Virginia Triple Crown championship in 2025. For 2026, Caden Kvapil drives the No. 88 with father Travis Kvapil as crew chief.
Pipeline Graduates
The system works from the ground up. Drivers who proved it at Hickory, South Boston, and Langley moved through JRM and into the Cup Series:
- Chase Elliott — 2014 O'Reilly Series champion → 2020 Cup champion (Hendrick)
- William Byron — 2017 O'Reilly Series champion → Hendrick No. 24
- Tyler Reddick — 2018 O'Reilly Series champion → 23XI Racing, 2026 Daytona 500 winner
- Josh Berry — Won the Bobby Isaac Memorial at Hickory twice → Cup Series
Cup Ambitions
Allgaier drove the No. 40 Traveller Whiskey Chevrolet in the 2026 Daytona 500 — a one-off Cup entry. The Hendrick alliance gives JRM access to Cup-level technical resources. Whether JRM becomes a full-time Cup team is the question that hangs over everything the organization does.
Related
- O'Reilly Auto Parts Series Guide
- CARS Tour Guide
- Virginia Triple Crown Guide
- Justin Allgaier
- Connor Zilisch
- Connor Hall
- Caden Kvapil
- Lee Pulliam
- Peyton Sellers
- Team Directory
Recent Race — Pocono, June 14, 2026 (MillerTech Battery 250)
Justin Allgaier finally won at Pocono, the one big track that had kept beating him, taking his fifth victory of 2026 with a late two-to-go shove from Hendrick Cup driver William Byron clearing the way at the front. The win pushed Allgaier's O'Reilly Series championship lead to 250 points. Read the recap.
Prior Race — Dover, May 16, 2026 (BetRivers 200)
JRM finished with three drivers in the top 10 at Dover. Justin Allgaier second (led 71 laps), Carson Kvapil seventh, Sammy Smith ninth. Corey Day (Hendrick Motorsports) won the race by .461 sec over Allgaier with a late pass against the outside wall. Read the recap.