MOORESVILLE, N.C. (Dec. 2, 2020) – The 2020 NASCAR season was always going to be memorable, given that a world-wide pandemic jumbled the schedule early on. Through the efforts of the racing teams at JR Motorsports, there were many memorable moments that had nothing to do with COVID-19.
Allgaier Claims JRM’s 50th Series Victory: At Richmond Raceway—on Sept. 11, no less—Justin Allgaier earned the milestone 50th victory for JR Motorsports. The team, owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr., Rick Hendrick and Kelley Earnhardt Miller, began competition in the NASCAR Xfinity Series with a single race in 2005 and has competed full-time ever since.
By eclipsing the half-century mark in victories, JRM gained a firmer grip on fifth place among all teams in series history. The team trails only Joe Gibbs Racing, Roush Fenway Racing, Richard Childress Racing and Team Penske in the overall team victory column. JRM is the only team among the top five which is wholly committed to the NASCAR Xfinity Series; the others are primarily NASCAR Cup Series teams.
Allgaier followed the record-setting performance on that Friday night in Richmond, which also stood as the first victory for FilterTime as a sponsor, with another victory on Saturday afternoon, leading 135 of the 250 laps in his BRANDT Professional Agriculture Chevrolet and earning his 11th victory with the No. 7 team, further extending his all-time lead in victories among drivers for JRM. It also extended Jason Burdett’s hold on the top spot in the category among crew chiefs with 13 and gave BRANDT its seventh victory, best among sponsors for JRM.
Allgaier, Burdett and the No. 7 team also scored the 49th victory for JRM prior to the Richmond sweep on Aug. 22 at Dover International Speedway. The Illinois native used the streak of three victories in six races to propel him into the NXS Playoffs, where he would eventually finish a career-best second last month after a thrilling run at Phoenix Raceway in the Championship 4.
Berry Wins NASCAR Weekly Series Title, Will Drive No. 8 in 2021 for JRM: Josh Berry finally won a grandfather clock by winning the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 for Late Models in 2019 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. In 2020, the Tennessee driver did one better by winning the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series title in dominating fashion.
The 30-year-old driver took his No. 88 All Things Automotive/iRacing Chevrolet to Victory Lane 27 times in 40 starts and authored a late-season push that saw him hold off longtime rival Peyton Sellers over the final weeks to win the championship going away. It was the first NASCAR championship for Berry and the first for JR Motorsports outside the NXS. Berry had previously won track championships at North Carolina’s Hickory Motor Speedway and Virginia’s Motor Mile Speedway, as well as the CARS Tour owner championship in 2016 and the driver title in 2017.
The quest for the NASCAR championship came about due to an event in a CARS Tour race at North Carolina’s Ace Speedway, in which Berry was disqualified and suspended for a race for an on-track incident. With no clear path to another CARS Tour title, Berry and his team decided to challenge for the NASCAR Weekly Series title, while rookie teammate Connor Mosack carried team colors in the CARS Tour for the remainder of the season.
As a result of his achievement, Earnhardt Jr. and Earnhardt Miller rewarded him with a partial season at the wheel of JRM’s No. 8 Chevrolet Camaro in the NXS in 2021. Earnhardt Jr. informed Berry of the decision live on SiriusXM during his virtual media tour for winning the NASCAR championship. Berry has made seven starts in the NXS during his career, putting together a spirited run to seventh-place at Richmond Raceway in 2015. He also earned a ninth-place finish at Iowa Speedway the following year. Details for Berry’s stint in the No. 8 Chevrolet Camaro will be announced at a later date.
Gragson Keeps Daytona Win Streak Going, Adds Win at Bristol: Noah Gragson won the season-opening race at Daytona International Speedway in February, his first career triumph in the NXS. In doing so, he became the third consecutive JRM driver to win the opener at DIS, joining Tyler Reddick (2018) and Michael Annett (2019). Gragson’s victory gave JRM five victories in the first race of the season at Daytona, as Regan Smith (2014) and Chase Elliott (2016) also scored wins there.
Gragson was in the midst of a titanic battle at the front of the pack on the final lap when the yellow flag waved, giving the Las Vegas native the victory. It was the first for Bass Pro Shops, TrueTimber® Camo and Black Rifle Coffee Company with JRM, which adorned the No. 9 Chevrolet Gragson drove, and the young driver responded with an epic hood-sliding celebration in the tri-oval once the race was over.
At Bristol Motor Speedway six races later, Gragson won a tense battle with teammate Allgaier to claim his second victory of the season, though it did come with some controversy as Allgaier, who had led 156 of the 303 laps, finished 18th.
The two victories sealed Gragson into the playoffs, and while he was eliminated in the final race of the Round of 8, the young driver finished a strong second in the season finale to end the year fifth in series points. Gragson earned 17 top-five and 25 top-10 finishes on the season, most among JRM drivers in both categories.
Annett Betters Top-10 Mark for Second Straight Year: Michael Annett broke out in a big way in 2019, posting six top-five and 19 top-10 finishes in his No. 1 Pilot Flying J Chevrolet. This past season, Annett continued that consistency, finishing in the top 10 in 22 of the 33 races and making the NXS Playoffs for the third time in four seasons for JRM.
The 34-year-old Iowa driver posted just three top-10 finishes in the first 10 races of the 2020 season, though he was in contention for another victory in the season opener at Daytona before getting caught in a last-lap crash. Over the next 23 events, however, Annett and crew chief Travis Mack became a model of consistency with 19 top-10 finishes to end the season with 22, three better than the 19 top-10s the pair recorded in 2019. That included his first career victory at Daytona in the season opener for 2019.
In the first 10 races of that latter stretch, Annett posted three top-five and eight top-10 results, missing out on a ninth when he broke a suspension piece on the final chicane of the Daytona Road Course while running seventh. He ended up 15th at the flag, coasting his Chevrolet across the line. By the time the playoffs began, Annett was in a groove.
The second race on Daytona’s 2.5-mile oval saw Annett running second when the leaders tangled ahead of him coming to the checkered flag. As the wrecking cars came up the track, Annett had nowhere to go and hit both as well as the outside wall, but kept his foot down and finished seventh. After clinching a Playoff berth in the first of two races at Richmond, Annett had a car to beat at Bristol before getting taken out by a lapped car while racing at the front of the field.
In the Playoffs, Annett finished seventh in the opener at Las Vegas and crossed the line second at Talladega, only to have his finish taken away in post-race inspection. He went from solidly inside the top eight to below the cut line to advance, and despite a ninth-place result on the Roval at Charlotte Motor Speedway, he was unable to transfer to the Round of 8. Over the final four races of the season, Annett logged a top-five (Phoenix) and three top-10s to finish out the season.
No. 8 Team Posts Six Podium Finishes, Solid Season: Crew chief Taylor Moyer oversaw solid growth in terms of finishes for JRM’s No. 8 team in 2020, as drivers Daniel Hemric, Jeb Burton and team owner Earnhardt Jr. combined to earn 11 top-five and 19 top-10 finishes in the 33 races. More important, six of those finishes were in the top three, compared to just one such finish in 2019.
Hemric led the way with four podium finishes, which featured a pair of runner-up results (first Charlotte and Kansas) and two third-place runs (Las Vegas and the Roval). Burton added a second-place in the second Richmond race and a third at the first Talladega event. In 2019, Moyer’s first season, Ryan Truex scored the only top-three result, a second at Phoenix in the fourth race of the season.
One big difference was a much smaller driver pool. In 2019, Moyer prepared cars for nine different drivers; in 2020, that number was cut by two-thirds to three. The three 2020 drivers combined for four more top five results than the year previous.
Earnhardt Jr. continued his partial schedule with a solid fifth-place run at Homestead-Miami Speedway, the first of two races on the 1.5-mile oval. Since his retirement at the end of 2017, the team owner has run three races for JRM and finished fourth, fifth and fifth in Hellmann’s-themed Chevrolets. The two-time series champion scored his 24th career NXS victory in 2016 at Richmond, also with Hellmann’s sponsorship.
Conti Makes Championship 4 in eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series, Wins at Texas: JRM driver Michael Conti, who teams with Brad Davies in the top NASCAR-based professional iRacing Series, won at the virtual Texas Motor Speedway in the penultimate round of the eNCCiS season to earn a berth in the Championship 4 and was in the thick of the battle for the $100,000 top prize in the season finale before finishing 10th in the race and third overall in series points.
Conti, the 2014 series champion, was in a must-win situation at the virtual Texas Motor Speedway to get to the winner-take-$100,000 finale the following week at the digital Homestead-Miami Speedway. Sitting 43 points under the cut line to advance, the New Jersey native broke a 37-race winless streak in the event to earn his title shot. As an added bonus, Davies made it through a last-lap melee by diving to the infield grass in his TrueTimber® Camo Camaro and crossed the line in second place, his best finish of the season and giving JRM their first one-two finish in series history.
In the finale, Conti played the strategy game against Nick Ottinger, Bobby Zalenski and Ryan Luza, his rivals for the top prize. Realizing his WR1 Sim Chassis Chevrolet did not have the raw speed of the others, Conti decided to go with a one-stop strategy rather than the conventional two-stop plan, staying out with 25 laps remaining to assume the lead. Counting on a caution that would let him put fresh tires on, Conti led 14 laps before he was able to get it. He and Ottinger pitted with four to go and both would have to race each other and Zalenski, on old tires, for the championship.
Ottinger broke away clean on the restart while Conti was caught up in traffic, and Ottinger overhauled Zalenski crossing under the white flag to win the grand prize. Conti made up four positions in the final flurry to finish 10th.
As a team, Conti and Davies finished second overall in team points for JR Motorsports, and both qualified for the series in 2021.