Dale Earnhardt Jr.: JR Motorsports is ‘out of the charter business right now’

In the aftermath of Stewart-Haas Racing’s fire-sale, NASCAR fans around the country have been fantasizing about Dale Earnhardt Jr. moving JR Motorsports from the Xfinity Series to the Cup Series.

It’s something that fans and media members alike have been talking about for over a decade now, as Earnhardt Jr’s Xfinity Series team has dominated NASCAR’s second-level series for quite some time. However, Earnhardt Jr. has been hesitant to make the move, for one reason or another.

In the past, it’s been because the price of a charter in the Cup Series was simply too expensive, but with the investment coming down from the astronomical heights it reached over the last couple of seasons, some believes now would be the time for Earnhardt Jr. to make the jump.

Unfortunately, as awesome as it would be to see Earnhardt Jr. running a Cup Series organization, he doused water on those rumors, during an interview with Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports.

“We’re out of the charter business right now. … The sale of a charter, I would call it a cycle, right? Well, we missed this last cycle. We’ll see what comes down the road,” Earnhardt Jr. told Pockrass. “I’m almost feeling like that if I were to ever get involved in the Cup side, it would be like an investment — my personal monetary investment in something current.

“I would be open to talking to team owners about putting money into a particular singular charter and saying, “Hey, I’m going to park an investment here in this charter. I’m leaving that for my generations down the road, my girls and what have you.” It wouldn’t be anything other than that. So I don’t know if we’ll ever have JR Motorsports physically owning charters, running a race team operating every facet of that. I think that that ship has sailed.”

Evidently, fans will have to get their JR Motorsports fill in the Xfinity Series moving forward, as the NASCAR Hall of Famer isn’t moving his team to the Cup Series anytime soon. As for Stewart-Haas Racing’s four available charters, they’ve already sold one of Front Row Motorsports, and there’s a myriad of other potential suitors, including Trackhouse Racing and 23XI Racing.

Regardless, if Dale Earnhardt Jr. doesn’t act soon, we may never see JR Motorsports in the Cup Series, but that’s beginning to feel more and more like a scenario the legendary driver is more than alright with.