At the Break: A Big Debut. Blazing Start Fuel ’25 Title Hopes for JRM

May 8, 2025

MOORESVILLE, N.C. (May 8, 2025) – Three months into the 2025 racing season, there’s a lot of positive news coming out of JR Motorsports.

In February, the team made its first start in the Daytona 500 with driver Justin Allgaier driving the No. 40 Traveller Whiskey Chevrolet to a ninth-place finish. The effort, in conjunction with Hendrick Motorsports and country music superstar Chris Stapleton, was a landmark moment for team owners Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kelley Earnhardt and Rick Hendrick.

Coming off a title in 2024 in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, won by Allgaier and the No. 7 BRANDT Professional Agriculture team, there is always the question: how do you top that?

That question is being answered after just 12 NXS races in 2025.

A record five wins, 17 top-five and 23 top-10 finishes are the totals for the JR Motorsports squad after 12 races, as well as 748 laps led. During the most recent race at Texas, won by Kyle Larson, JRM eclipsed 15,000 laps led in the NXS, with Allgaier leading the barrier-breaker.

The five wins in 12 races is the most ever for JRM in a 12-race stretch to begin the season, edging the 2022 season by a single victory.

Allgaier, a two-time winner so far this season, leads the way with his triumphs at Las Vegas and Homestead, while Connor Zilisch got the first win of the year in March at Circuit of the Americas. Sammy Smith won in the series return to Rockingham Speedway, and Larson stepped in for an injured Zilisch at Texas and won the most recent event. All but Larson are locked into the NXS Playoffs in the first third of the season.

Allgaier currently leads the point standings at the break, with Carson Kvapil sixth on the strength of three top-five and four top-10 finishes. Smith is ninth in points with a victory in hand and Zilisch, is 12th despite missing a race due to injury. He has secured a Playoff waiver as well.

BIG MONEY: The Xfinity Dash 4 Cash has been good to JRM over the years, and it was especially sweet in 2025. Allgaier swept the $100,000 payouts at Homestead-Miami and Bristol, while Smith added his name to the list of winners at Rockingham. Since the program began in 2009, JRM drivers have won the extra cash 24 times.

VERSATILITY: Another point of interest toward the 2025 championship is the types of tracks on which the team has earned victory.

COTA is a road course, while LVMS, Homestead and Texas are 1.5-mile ovals of differing configurations. Rockingham is a banked 1-mile oval. That’s three of the five types of tracks the series runs on, and will play a role in determining the champion

The NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs features short tracks (Bristol and Martinsville), a 1-mile oval (Phoenix), 1.5-mile ovals (Kansas and Las Vegas), a superspeedway at Talladega and the Charlotte Roval.

Three out of five is pretty good odds for the defending series champions.

Following the two-week break, races at Charlotte and Nashville are on the docket for the end of May, and the trip to Mexico City on June 14 kicks off a nine-race burst that leads to the opening of the Playoffs in September.