Dale Earnhardt Jr., Carson Kvapil make major announcement for 2026 NASCAR season

Dale Earnhardt Jr. then spoke to Kvapil about pairing him with legendary crew chief Rodney Childers, as the expectation is to win races. “Having Rodney, and I think there’s going to be a lot of good things coming next year,” Kvapil added. “And just me having the experience of running this full-time season this year is going to really going to help us next year, but winning races is the main goal.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr. to announce more Carson Kvapil news soon

Earnhardt then teased more big news JR Motorsports plans to announce soon. “Once we’re beyond Phoenix, we’ll have more information about what those remaining races look like,” he said. “So we’ll be sharing all that once we get through Phoenix.”

It was previously announced that Kvapil was going to split driving the No. 1 car with Connor Zilisch. Kvapil drove that call all year and is now getting ready to compete in the NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship race with Zilisch, Justin Allgaier, and Jesse Love.

Kvapil has reached the Championship 4 despite not winning a race this year. In his first season as a full-time driver with JR Motorsports, the 22-year-old has finished second three times and has finished in the top five in four other races.

Kvapil clinched a spot after finishing 18th at Martinsville on Saturday. “I think the sky’s the limit for these guys,” he said after the race, per NASCAR.com. “Our season hasn’t been the flashiest … but you never know. It all comes down to one race, and we’ve got a 25-percent chance of winning.”