JR Motorsports, which has run their No. 88 NASCAR Xfinity Series entry in a part-time schedule in 2022, will add five more races to the slate and will welcome Hendrick Motorsports drivers Chase Elliott, William Byron and Kyle Larson to the stable.
JR Motorsports made the announcement on Tuesday in the form of a press release.
HendrickCars.com will provide sponsorship for the entry. For HendrickCars.com, they’ve found the NASCAR sponsorship platform to be very beneficial to their automotive group.
“The NASCAR platform has been instrumental in helping us build HendrickCars.com into a national brand, and we look forward to continuing that momentum through this expanded effort,” said Greg Gach, president of Charlotte-based Hendrick Automotive Group. “We are committed to our racing programs and supporting our Hendrick Motorsports teammates whenever we can, and we know these additional races will benefit our drivers and teams. We’re also excited to work with Dale Jr. on this opportunity. He’s a terrific partner whose dealerships have created tremendous value for our General Motors customers. It’s a win-win for everyone.”
According to the release from JRM, Elliott will get the first crack at running the No. 88 as he’ll compete in the May 7th race at Darlington Raceway. Byron will slide behind the wheel at Texas on May 21st and then Larson will run the car at Watkins Glen on August 20th and again on Darlington Raceway on September 3rd.
All three drivers have driven for JR Motorsports in the past.
Elliott competed full-time for JR Motorsports in 2014 and 2015 and scored a championship and a runner-up finish in the championship standings during those two seasons. All five of Elliott’s NXS wins have come with JR Motorsports.
Byron also scored a NASCAR Xfinity Series championship with JR Motorsports back in 2017. However, Byron has never run a NXS race since that championship season.
Larson has one previous start for JR Motorsports, but it didn’t come in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. Larson ran one race in the short-lived No. 00 JR Motorsports Truck Series entry. Larson started on pole and finished seventh in that race at Chicagoland Speedway back in 2015.
These races added will mean that the fifth JRM car is now set for a total of nine races this season. The No. 88 team has a best finish of ninth, which came with Miguel Paludo behind the wheel at Circuit of the Americas. Dale Earnhardt Jr. ran the car at Martinsville Speedway and scored an 11th-place finish.
