Last season, JR Motorsports entered the NASCAR Cup Series’ crown-jewel event, the DAYTONA 500, with its most successful driver at the wheel and a country-music icon on board.
This season, team owners Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kelley Earnhardt-Miller and Rick Hendrick will do it again with Justin Allgaier at the wheel and Chris Stapleton and Buffalo Trace Distillery’s Traveller Whiskey brand on the hood.
Allgaier, the all-time leader in victories for JRM and the 2024 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Champion, will reprise his role with the intention of earning yet another milestone: victory at The Beach.
“It’s definitely special to be able to make another run at the DAYTONA 500 with Traveller Whiskey, Chris Stapleton, Dale, Kelley and everyone at JR Motorsports,” Allgaier said. “Last year was such an amazing experience and I am just thankful to be the one that gets to be behind the wheel of this No. 40. We had such a great time last year and I can’t wait to get down there and do it all again.”
Last year, in the first Cup Series start for JRM, Allgaier ran a savvy race and earned a ninth-place finish, his best in five starts at Daytona at the top level of NASCAR. So how does he top that in 2026?
“These races are definitely really interesting,” Allgaier said. “You have to be on your toes at all times. For us, we just need to be smart all week long and avoid any potential trouble that may come out there when you are two-, three- and sometimes four-wide. In the end, we just need to get ourselves in the best position possible to draft our way to the front. The lines change so quickly, but if we can find ourselves in that right line toward the end, I see no reason why we won’t get an even better result this year.”
As in last year’s 500, Allgaier will have to qualify the hard way, either in time trials or in the twin 125-lap qualifying races.
“We know that we are in the same position this year that we were last year, meaning that we will need to qualify our way into the 500,” Allgaier said. “Hopefully, we can take care of that on Wednesday night during qualifying, but I know regardless we are going to have an extremely fast Traveller Chevrolet that will gives us a great chance to either lock in during qualifying, or race our way in like last year during the duels.”
