MOORESVILLE, N.C. (Dec. 21, 2022) -- There have been plenty of memorable moments for JR Motorsports in its history. Three NASCAR Xfinity Series championships, the making of new stars and a powerful presence in the world of NASCAR come to mind. The 2022 season, however, set new horizons, with a record number of victories, title contention and a plethora of achievements that will live on for quite some time.
Mayer Makes Strides in First Full Season: As the youngest member of JRM's driver contingent in the NXS, Mayer's first foray into a 33-race season went quite well. The 19-year-old Wisconsin native earned a playoff berth, made the Round of 8 and eventually finished seventh in series points. He also very nearly had his first victory at Talladega Superspeedway in the fall, a track where winning and losing is often measured by the slimmest of margins.
Mayer went on to punch his ticket to the Round of 8 the following weekend at the Roval at Charlotte Motor Speedway and was in the mix for a Championship 4 slot at Martinsville Speedway, but fell just short. Mayer and team showed tremendous speed nearly every week, and the young driver served notice that he will be a force to be reckoned with for 2023 with his career-best effort.
Allgaier Makes Title Race for Fifth Time: Justin Allgaier has been the most prolific championship contender in series history since the inception of the new playoff format, and the Illinois native did not disappoint in 2022. Allgaier has been a Championship 4 participant in five of the seven iterations of the winner-take-all event, all for JRM in the No. 7 BRANDT Professional Agriculture Chevrolet.
After posting victories at Darlington Raceway in May and Nashville Superspeedway in June, Allgaier rallied in the latter stages of the event at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in July to earn his third victory of the season. In the process, he earned JRM's first triumph in 43 NXS starts as a company at the Magic Mile. The landmark achievement was one of five maiden victories earned by JRM drivers in 2022. The NHMS victory was also his team-record 16th, all with crew chief Jason Burdett, and the 19th of his NXS career. It would also be the last, at least for the present, with Burdett as his shot-caller. Allgaier's new crew chief for 2023 will be Jim Pohlman, who helped guide Allgaier to the ARCA Menards Series championship in 2008.
In addition to his three victories, Allgaier led 763 laps, the second-best total of his career with JRM.
Kvapil, Berry Lift Late Models to Sterling Season: Between Carson Kvapil and Josh Berry--with a star turn by team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr.--the JRM Late Model team dominated both the CARS Racing Tour and the bigger Late Model races at the end of the 2022 season.
Kvapil, son of 2003 NASCAR Truck Series champion and former NASCAR Cup Series driver Travis, won four times in his No. 8 iRacing Chevrolet on the way to a sweep of the CARS Tour driver and owner championships in his first full-time season. The 19-year-old driver clinched both titles with a race left in the season, despite sitting out one event. The championships pushed JRM's team total to five, all coming in the past seven seasons.
After competing in four races at the end of 2021, Kvapil started his title season with a victory in the Old North State Nationals at Caraway (N.C.) Speedway, which paid $30,000 to the winner. Wins at Franklin County Speedway in Virginia, North Wilkesboro Speedway in North Carolina and South Boston Speedway in Virginia led Kvapil to the cusp of the championships, and he sealed the deal with a third-place run at Caraway in the season finale.
The victory at North Wilkesboro in the Racetrack Revival 200 was the biggest of Kvapil's young career, as it came in front of 20,000 fans at the former NASCAR Cup Series track. Earnhardt Jr., driving a throwback No. 3 Sun Drop Chevrolet depicting his 1993 start there, thrilled the packed house with a third-place run.
Berry opened the season by winning the Icebreaker at Florence (S.C.) Motor Speedway and added a CARS Tour win at Greenville-Pickens Speedway in the Palmetto State before dominating the inaugural Jack Ingram Memorial at Hickory (N.C.) Motor Speedway. To close the season, Berry earned his second straight Thanksgiving Classic trophy—and the $50,000 winner's check—at Southern National Motorsports Park.
100 Wins for Berry with JRM: Berry famously got his start with JRM's Late Model team in 2010 and earned his shot at a full-time NASCAR touring series ride by being very, very successful on the short tracks.
The 31-year-old Tennessee native has earned five career NXS victories in just 62 starts, and with his Late Model win on Nov. 27 at Southern National Motorsports Park, Berry notched his 100th career victory in JRM machines.
“That's an amazing number,” an emotional Berry said upon his 100th career triumph for JRM. “There's a lot of really high-quality victories in there too, besides the Xfinity Series wins. We won pretty much all of the big LMSC shows, at tons of different tracks. That's what means the most to me. We pretty much won at every race track within the mid-Atlantic, we won in different series, won big shows, just a lot of success in there that I'm really proud of.”
His best season, 2020, produced 27 of those victories and a NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series championship. In 2019, Berry dominated the annual ValleyStar Credit Union 300 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway, setting a track record in qualifying, leading all 200 laps and earning $44,000 in the process. He's also a three-time CARS Tour champion (one driver title and two owner's championships), the career leader in victories and most other categories for the top Late Model Stock Car series in the Southeast. Earlier this year, he raced for the NXS championship alongside teammates Allgaier and Noah Gragson, and in December won the pole for the annual Snowball Derby.
Gragson Caps Monster Season for Team: Noah Gragson set the world on fire in 2022, winning a personal- and team-best eight NXS races--including a record-tying four straight--on the way to a runner-up finish in the season standings. Gragson's total was more than half of the record 15 wins by JRM in 2022 (the previous best team showing in a season came in 2014 with nine), and he came one position away from winning JRM's fourth series championship in the final race of the season.
Gragson's first win came at Phoenix Raceway early in the season, and he followed that with a victory at Talladega in April. At Pocono Raceway in July, Gragson earned JRM's first checkered flag at the Tricky Triangle. Winning a last-lap barn-burner at Darlington on Labor Day weekend began the four-race streak, in which the Nevada driver won the team's first at Kansas Speedway. The regular-season finale at Bristol Motor Speedway was next, and Gragson closed the flurry with a win in the first race of the Round of 12 at Texas Motor Speedway. In his attempt for a series-record fifth straight triumph at Talladega, Gragson finished 10th.
After winning at Homestead-Miami Speedway--and exorcising the demons from a late-race crash while leading in 2021--Gragson was safely into the Championship 4. At Phoenix in the finale, Gragson finished a close second, bringing a solid end to a season for the ages.
Gragson's victories at Pocono and Kansas, along with Berry's at Charlotte, Allgaier's at New Hampshire and Kyle Larson's at Watkins Glen, removed all but two tracks from JRM's career victory total. The two remaining tracks at which the team has yet to win are Circuit of the Americas and Portland International Raceway.