Earnhardt Jr. admits Cup champ’s interest in | Sports News

Since being shaped in 2002 by Dale Earnhardt Jr., NASCAR Xfinity Series crew JR Motorsports has fielded quite a few high-profile drivers, together with Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart, Martin Truex Jr., Chase Elliott, Mark Martin and Danica Patrick, amongst others.

In 2025, en path to the crew’s a centesimal Xfinity Series win, they’ve fielded an extraordinarily robust lineup together with the presently injured Connor Zilisch, Justin Allgaier, Kyle Larson, Shane van Gisbergen, Ross Chastain, and Daniel Suarez. However, it appears one other Cup Series legend may but be part of the ranks at JRM.

In a latest episode of the ‘Dale Jr. Download‘, while discussing NASCAR’s potential rule change to permit Cup drivers to compete in more Xfinity/Craftsman Truck Series races every season, as per Sports Business Journal, Earnhardt revealed that two-time Cup champion Kyle Busch has reached out on quite a few events about stepping behind the wheel of a JRM car.

“He texts me from time to time, he’s like, ‘Man, if you’ve got an open Xfinity race I’d love to run it,’” Earnhardt stated.

Busch, the 2009 Xfinity Series champion and present driver of the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet in the Cup, has not raced in NASCAR’s second sequence because the 2024 season, when he got here home sixth at Charlotte for RCR in his sole look that 12 months.

With 102 wins in 367 Xfinity races, Busch, 40, is the winningest sequence driver of all time, with a large lead over Martin in second with 49 wins. In truth, Brad Keselowski is the closest presently energetic driver to him in the leaderboard with 39 victories.

Whether or not Earnhardt would ever think about giving Busch a drive in the Xfinity Series, the Hall of Famer didn’t clarify. 

As for the aforementioned potential change to NASCAR’s guidelines surrounding racing in decrease sequence, Earnhardt didn’t consider it will finally make a large distinction, noting how many of the present Cup drivers merely “don’t want” to drive in decrease sequence and have no actual need to take action.

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Currently, drivers who’ve three or more years of expertise in the Cup are solely permitted to compete in 5 Xfinity and 5 Truck races every year. What’s more, they aren’t allowed to enter the final common season race or any of the next Playoff races. But as NASCAR president Steve O’Donnell revealed whereas discussing O’Reilly Auto Parts changing Xfinity because the second sequence’s sponsor from 2026, this might quickly change.

“We’re going to look at who is able to race in the series in the future as well and maybe make some changes down the road, but there’s a lot of opportunities for us to work with The CW and O’Reilly Auto Parts to take it to the next level so you’re operating from a really good base, which is awesome, but I think we’ve got a lot of growth ahead of us,” he stated.

“You look at all of our series and we’ve had limits on, ‘Could a Cup driver compete? How many races could they compete?’ So we’ve certainly had discussions with The CW and in the Truck Series as well [about], ‘Does that rule as it stands now make the most sense to continue as it is? Do we tweak it?’ So we’re looking at a lot of things over the offseason and talking to a lot of the teams and drivers.”