JR Motorsports, GMS Racing to Unveil New Driver Development Program Thursday

By Toby Christie     

UPDATE January 22: JR Motorsports sent out a new press release addressing a change in time for the announcement. The announcement will now take place at the NASCAR Hall of Fame on Thursday, January 24th at 10 A.M. ET.

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JR Motorsports sent out a media advisory on Monday. According to the email, the team will be joining forces with GMS Racing to showcase a brand new driver development program between the two NASCAR organizations.

The release states that the announcement will be on Thursday, January 24th at 2 P.M. 10 A.M. ET. JR Motorsports’ co-owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. and GMS Racing’s team president Mike Beam will be on stage for the announcement.

With a few days until the announcement, speculation will certainly run rampant as to who has been selected to be in the program. However, an indicator might be given in a Facebook Stories post from Dale Earnhardt Jr. from January 16th.

In the post, Earnhardt shared video showing Ryan Truex and Jeb Burton in the JR Motorsports shop. The story had the caption, “Couple of hot shoes showed up @jrmotorsports.”

You would figure the two young, talented drivers who haven’t announced any large scale plans for 2019 would be in the conversation.

GMS Racing fields trucks in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series and the No. 23 Camaro SS for John Hunter Nemechek in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

JR Motorsports has fielded the car for three of the last five NASCAR Xfinity Series driver champions, including last season’s champion Tyler Reddick. Overall, Earnhardt’s race team has scored 44 wins in the NXS in 14 years of competition.

GMS Racing has one victory which came with Spencer Gallagher behind the wheel at Talladega Superspeedway a year ago.