It’s actually more of a ‘when’ than an ‘if’.
JR Motorsports co-owner and vice president Kelley Earnhardt Miller, speaking to Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Tuesday, confirmed a JRM entry in the NASCAR Cup Series at one point.
“We think about it every day, we work on it, it feels like any other day. We want to race to the Cup. We believe that’s a good place for us,” said Earnhardt Miller, sister of NASCAR Hall of Famer and co-owner of JRM Dale Earnhardt Jr. “We also want to stay in the Xfinity Series, so you know what that looks like. like is definitely up for grabs.”
The timing is interesting here. Over the weekend at Nashville Superspeedway, Josh Berry, the No. 8 JRM driver, indicated that he has “a firm goal of racing a Cup car one day.” The veteran has proven to be a contender in the Xfinity Series this year and could potentially be a regular candidate for a ride if the team gets wet at Premier Series level.
LAKE: Josh Berry shows interest in future Cup Series † 2023 Silly Season Overview
Earnhardt Miller hasn’t given a concrete timeline for when this could happen, and there are, of course, some hurdles to overcome before it becomes a reality. Yet the intention is fully there.
“The biggest barrier is those charter fees and just looking at the business model and trying to find sponsorship and really trying to make that leap,” she said. “I think we saw last fall where there was a lot of demand for charters and a lot of talks and purchases were made. I don’t think there are many charters up for grabs at a reasonable price right now, I’ll just say.
… It’s like, when is the right time to strike? That’s exactly what we’re trying to work out and figure out. Right now we are focused on re-signing our guys for Xfinity for next year and re-signing our sponsors and if we’ll get a chance then to do some Cup races and put our toe in the water and see . I don’t think we’ll be racing the cup full-time in 2023, that’s for sure. Unless something amazing happens and something amazing falls out of the sky, but right now our sights are beyond that and we’re just trying to figure it out. †
JRM is also enjoying a sensational 2022 season in the Xfinity Series. Over 16 races, the team has racked up six wins under Justin Allgaier, Berry and Noah Gragson, including wins in five of the last seven.
Listen to the entire interview here: