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Next-Gen Has JR Motorsports Interested in NASCAR Cup Expansion

Photo credit: Jared C. Tilton - Getty Images
Photo credit: Jared C. Tilton - Getty Images

The answer used to be an automatic ‘no’ anytime someone asked Dale Earnhardt Jr. if JR Motorsports had any serious intentions to start a NASCAR Cup Series program.

Approaching the dawn of a new era with the next-generation race car, the answer has shifted somewhere closer to ‘maybe.’

Earnhardt says he has discussed the plausibility of a Cup Series program with his sister and business partner Kelley Earnhardt-Miller. The intended cost-containment initiatives, should they successfully manifest, are certainly attractive to the JR Motorsports co-owners.

"We’re not deep into conversation about it," Earnhardt said on Sunday afternoon after the Xfinity Series race at Martinsville Speedway. "But when the new car comes out, I think you have to ask yourself, ‘Is this a moment we need to consider—if we would ever get into Cup—is this the time to look at what we’re doing and see if that makes sense. Me and my sister have just had some short, personal conversations about it that haven't really developed into anything strong. But I think it would be irresponsible for us not to at least look at what getting into Cup—with the big turnover of equipment, new race car—what that means?

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"Getting into that series is so hard. The money that you’re going to need that’s required to race there and be competitive more than doubles. We don’t have a partner right now who is willing to make a commitment like that so that keeps the conversations pretty short between me and Kelley. But I think you have to ask yourself—with this new car coming along, it would be irresponsible not to I think."

The biggest obstacle would be acquiring an ownership charter, which by itself could cost millions of dollars, and that’s before a single dollar is spent on the overhead needed to construct one of the new cars.

The Next-Gen car is a revolutionary platform with its six-speed sequential transmission, independent rear suspension, 18" aluminum wheels and wider, lower-profile tires with a single-lug assembly. It’s essentially a spec car with various single source suppliers -- the primary factor behind its cost-containment values.