NASCAR Cup Series driver Justin Allgaier (40) during the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway. Mike Watters-Imagn Images

JR Motorsports earns top-10 finish in its first NASCAR Cup Series race

By Samuel Stubbs | Last updated Feb 16, 2025 11:46 PM ET

One of the biggest stories of Speedweeks was the NASCAR Cup Series debut of JR Motorsports.

The Dale Earnhardt Jr.-owned team has consistently been a force to be reckoned with in the Xfinity Series, but the 2025 Daytona 500 marked the team's first foray into Cup Series competition.

Justin Allgaier — who won the 2024 Xfinity Series championship with JRM — drove the car into the Daytona 500 in Thursday's duel races, and on Sunday, he piloted the No. 40 Traveller Whiskey Chevrolet to a ninth-place finish in the team's first ever Cup Series start. It was Allgaier's first Daytona 500 since 2015.

Allgaier and the No. 40 team were quiet for much of the race but survived the carnage to put themselves in a position to earn a solid result.

The top-10 finish completed a satisfying week for Earnhardt Jr. and the whole of JR Motorsports.

Full comments from @DaleJr about his realization that Cup racing is something he’s now striving for with @JRMotorsports.

Says the team is interested in conversations with a partner that may want to purchase a charter in the future. #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/OVhxEu4q5x
— Noah Lewis (@Noah_Lewis1) February 17, 2025

"This is the best part about racing," Earnhardt Jr. said after the race. "The moments of getting a car to the track and unloading it, going through the processes of putting it out there and racing it, whether you're driving it or owning it or whatever. When your heart's in it, you want to make sure it gets back to the house in one piece.

"This is a good experience. I'm enjoying it, (I) hope to do it again."

On Thursday, an emotional Earnhardt Jr. celebrated as Allgaier made the field for the Daytona 500. On Sunday, he can go to sleep knowing that his team's first ever Cup Series race was an immeasurable success that could lead to future Cup Series opportunities for JRM.

For Allgaier, the ninth-place finish is his best Cup Series effort since an eighth-place finish at Bristol Motor Speedway in April of 2015.

Samuel Stubbs

Hailing from the same neck of the woods as NASCAR Hall of Famer Mark Martin, Samuel has been covering NASCAR for Yardbarker since February 2024. He has been a member of the National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) since October of 2024. When he’s not writing about racing, Samuel covers Arkansas Razorback basketball for Yardbarker

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