Dale Jr. is nervous ahead of second Daytona 500 as team owner

2 hours ago7 min read1 comments

Alright, let's huddle up and talk about what's really going on in the garage with Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the crew at JR Motorsports as they gear up for another shot at the Daytona 500 in 2026.You know the vibe—it’s that mix of pure excitement and straight-up nerves you get before the big game, and for Junior, this is the Super Bowl of NASCAR. Coming off a seriously impressive top-10 finish in their Cup Series debut with Justin Allgaier piloting the No.40 Traveller Whiskey car, you’d think they’d be riding high, and they are, but there’s a whole new level of pressure this time around. Think of it like your favorite NBA team making a surprise playoff run one year; everyone expects them to come back even stronger, but the league has adjusted, and now they’ve got a target on their back.For Junior and his sister, co-owner Kelley Earnhardt-Miller, this isn’t about some long-term, full-time Cup campaign—at least not yet. As Dale put it on his Dale Jr.Download podcast, 'We just wanna race,' and the Daytona 500 is the ultimate stage, the one race where an open team like theirs can actually make the financials work without taking a massive loss, thanks to partners stepping up to fund the effort. But here’s where the plot thickens: they’re rolling out with a new Chevrolet Camaro body style, and if you follow NASCAR like it’s the nightly NBA drama, you know that a new body is like a team switching up their offensive scheme right before the playoffs—it might look good on paper, but it takes time to gel, and Daytona is the last place you want to be figuring things out.Junior’s not sugarcoating it; he’s straight-up nervous, comparing it to past manufacturer changes where teams struggled out of the gate as they dialed in the aerodynamics, tweaking quarter panels and nose designs while hoping NASCAR gives the green light without flagging it as a massive advantage. And let’s not forget the elephant in the room: no charter.That means they’re not locked into the big show, so qualifying becomes a heart-pounding play-in game where pure speed might not be enough, and they could be forced to race their way in through the duels. It’s a high-stakes scenario that has Junior tempering expectations, focusing first on just making the grid—that proud moment, as he describes it, of pushing the car out on Sunday morning and watching his driver strap in.He’s hoping to reunite the same crew that made magic happen last year, including veteran crew chief Greg Ives and Barry Hoover, who came out of retirement, because that group had the chemistry and care you need for a Cinderella story. But recreating that success? That’s the real challenge, and as any sports fan knows, lightning doesn’t always strike twice. So, while the shop is buzzing and employees are pumped—even Rodney Childers is chiming in on social media—the reality is that this second act is about more than just racing; it’s about proving that a family-run team can hang with the giants, even when the odds are stacked against them.

#Dale Earnhardt Jr

#JR Motorsports

#Daytona 500

#Justin Allgaier

#team owner

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