JR Motorsports attempting Daytona 500 with Justin Allgaier in partnership with Chris Stapleton

JR Motorsports has entered reigning Xfinity Series champion Justin Allgaier into next month’s Daytona 500, Jenna Fryer of The Associated Press reported Wednesday.

Allgaier’s attempt to make the field is in partnership with 10-time Grammy Award-winning artist Chris Stapleton, whose whiskey label Traveller Whiskey will sponsor the JR Motorsports Chevrolet. It marks the first time JR Motorsports has entered a car in a Cup Series race.

The deal came together when Stapleton reached out to Hendrick Motorsports owner Rick Hendrick about a collaboration with Traveller Whiskey. Hendrick put the “White Horse” singer in touch with Earnhardt, as he also has an ownership stake with JR Motorsports. Earnhardt, a two-time Daytona 500 champion, has long had a dream of entering the “Great American Race” as a car owner. Thanks to Hendrick and Stapleton, that dream will become a reality on Sunday, Feb. 16.

“I shared with Rick that for a very long time that I had a dream, at one time in my life, of entering the Daytona 500 as a car owner,” Earnhardt told Fryer. “Rick presented the opportunity to connect with Chris and his team, they were interested in marketing in our sport, and Rick knew that I was wanting to fulfill this opportunity. It was like two people that wanted the same thing.”

JR Motorports is embarking on its 24th year of Xfinity competition. The team has won four Xfinity titles — 2014 (Chase Elliott), 2017 (William Byron), 2018 (Tyler Reddick) and 2024 (Allgaier). The Earnhardts have previously expressed interest in moving up to Cup, but Earnhardt said there’s been no discussions for other ventures beyond the Daytona 500.

Justin Allgaier to run 2025 Daytona 500 for JR Motorsports

Stapleton, who was involved in the car design, plans to attend what will be his first Daytona 500.

“We had this whiskey and I always have ”pie in the sky” dreams of things to do and we knocked on the door a little bit,” Stapleton said. “If I’m being 100% honest, I just thought it would be cool to see whiskey on a car. And he brought up Dale Jr. and I was like ‘Why wouldn’t we do that if we can?’ This is a lot of my audience, for both whiskey and country music, and what [Earnhardt] does in auto racing.”

Allgaier, 38, competed in both the 2014 and ’15 Daytona 500. He finished 27th in 2014 and 37th the following season. A regular for JR Motorsports in Xfinity since 2016, Allgaier has finished seventh or better in the points standings in 14th total full-time seasons in the series.

Allgaier finally captured his first Xfinity championship in 2024. He started last season’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte in place of Kyle Larson, who arrived late from the Indy 500. He earned a 13th-place finish after NASCAR called the race due to rain.

“This is an incredible honor to be driving JR Motorsports’ inaugural entry into the Cup Series,” Allgaier said. “Entering into the Daytona 500 has been a goal of this company for a long time and I know that we are going to have everything we need to go out and contend for the win. This is going to be special for sure.”