It was another fantastic weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for JR Motorsports, with Josh Berry picking up the team’s 14th win of the 2022 NASCAR Xfinity Series season, and locking himself into the ‘Championship Four’.
Even better, was the fact that the organization continued to show their total dominance in the second-tier series this season, by capturing their second-ever 1-2-3 finish on Saturday, with Berry, Noah Gragson, and Justin Allgaier.
So, there were clearly many reasons to celebrate. Therefore, it only makes sense to have a special guest involved in your celebrations, right?
JR Motorsports had just that, and it was likely more than they bargained for. On Monday, Dale Earnhardt Jr. shared that when the team was unloading the team’s cars after Saturday’s race at Las Vegas, they found a possum in the engine bay of a car.
The JRM teams unloaded the cars from Vegas today and found a possum in the engine bay of one of the cars. I kid you not.
— Dale Earnhardt Jr. (@DaleJr) October 17, 2022
Yes, you read that correctly. There was a possum in the engine bay of one of the cars. Earnhardt Jr. never specifically mentioned which car it was that had the possum in the engine bay.
Even better, is that the possum survived the trip back to North Carolina. So, I don’t know about you, but this seems like the perfect opportunity to adopt the possum and make it the official shop pet of JR Motorsports.
— Dale Earnhardt Jr. (@DaleJr) October 17, 2022
Animals of all different types have a rocky past when it comes to NASCAR. In 2019, Todd Gilliland raced to the conclusion of a NASCAR Truck Series event with a fox smashed into his front grill. Gilliland came home in eighth.
Over the years, several groundhogs/squirrels/dogs/etc. have gotten loose on the track during practice, qualifying, and even race sessions. Sometimes the result is happy, with the animal escaping, but sometimes the result is, well… not.
Luckily, the possum is alright, but I’m sure they’re asking the same question we are: “How on earth did I get here?”