With Sam Mayer and Brandon Jones departing from JR Motorsports at the end of 2024, there was uncertainty about how the team would perform next year. Both Mayer and Jones were experienced Xfinity drivers, but Dale Jr. and his team made a bold move to prepare for 2025. They went on to sign two rookie drivers, Connor Zilisch and Carson Kvapil, and it looked like a gamble to begin with.

Nine races into the season, it’s fair to say that this gamble has paid off. Not just the two rookie drivers, but the entire JRM driver line-up has been on top of their game. All four drivers are inside the top 10 in the points standings heading into the blockbuster weekend in Rockingham. And this early speed and momentum even caught co-owner Dale Jr. off guard, who was excited for the rest of the year.

The highs and lows of a NASCAR season are nothing new to Dale Earnhardt Jr. His team, JR Motorsports (JRM), has a history of settling into a groove in the middle of the season and frequently catching up in the early races. A welcome break from this trend has been offered by the 2025 NASCAR Xfinity Series. Earnhardt Jr. appeared on a recent episode of The Dale Jr. Download and shared his surprise, “Normally, having speed like this isn’t a new thing for us… but usually we don’t start the year with it. This year, we’ve started off strong and fast pretty much everywhere.”

Check Justin Allgaier’s performance so far. Last year, his first win came at Darlington, but in 2025, he’s already notched up two victories and is on a streak of five races with top 5 finishes. Rookie Connor Zilisch has announced himself with a win at COTA, whereas both Kvapil and Sammy Smith are holding their own and have come agonizingly close to winning races. Had it not been for Kyle Larson’s clinical performance at Bristol, Kvapil was set to bag his first Xfinity Series win.

“I know! We’re excited, and we have SVG and Chastain, and other things going on with the fifth car. So we go to the racetrack, and man, you know, over the last couple of years we’ve gone to the race track, and you know, it was a bit of a struggle getting all four cars to be competitive, and this year I knew it. I told him at the start of the year at the company meeting, I said, ‘I’m more excited about this driver lineup than I’ve been in a long time, I think we’ve got a real shot at all running very competitively,” Dale Jr. explained further.

With drivers like Ross Chastain and Shane van Gisbergen (SVG), JRM’s calculated use of a fifth car gives the team’s lineup more depth and adaptability. This strategy offers chances for diverse race tactics and driver development in addition to bringing in more talent. Imagine SVG and Zilisch ripping through the road courses, while Chastain and Allgaier run riot on the ovals. With nine races shared between the Trackhouse Racing drivers, JRM is at the cusp of bagging more wins this season, and they are just getting started.

Well, Dale Jr also shared his take on Larson’s bold statement, “I wanted to embarrass them.” And let’s just say, he wasn’t buying into Larson’s complaints against NASCAR or the schooling session to Xfinity Series drivers

Dale Jr. feels Kyle Larson played it safe in his pursuit of a NASCAR sweep

Kyle Larson headed into the Bristol weekend with the hopes of levelling the record set by Kyle Busch. That is to win the Truck, Xfinity and Cup Series races. But Chandler Smith played the role of a spoiler as he won the Truck Series race, and the HMS star couldn’t complete the three-peat again. Leading 277 laps, he dominated the Xfinity Series event and won the Food City 500 on Sunday as well. But his comments against NASCAR and the drivers in the lower series didn’t go well with Dale Jr.

Larson sounded off on the NASCAR rule of limiting Cup drivers to race in the Xfinity and Truck Series to just five races. He won’t be attempting any more sweeps this year, despite having three more attempts. This is why Jr. wasn’t sold on his bold statement, sharing his rake, the veteran driver said, “NASCAR said we’re gonna limit the Cup drivers to five races a year, and I think that has served a good purpose. Now is it the right number? I don’t know about that, Kyle Larson’s complaining that it’s not, but he’s only running two. And he’s run at the tracks that he’s really freaking good at, Bristol and Homestead.”

This was Dale Jr. putting on his Xfinity team owner hat, and he feels that the rule by NASCAR limiting Cup drivers is in the interest of the team owners and drivers. Moreover, he wanted Larson to stand on business and sign up for more races this year. Well, it will be interesting to see how the next Xfinity Series race plays out for Kyle Larson, as right now, he’s ruffled a lot of feathers.