A long winter is ahead of us after the 2023 season finale. But little does that mean we will be left without feeling the heat of engines. As NASCAR’s teams pick themselves up from the highs and lows of the year, the grid for 2024 begins to gain structure. In anticipation of the future, contracts have been flying around for the last few months. Amongst those papers was the deal that brought 19-year-old Xfinity superstar Sammy Smith to the garages of Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Signing the youngster from Joe Gibbs Racing to take the wheel of his car at JR Motorsports, the racing legend is ready to make a champion of his own. Setting the bar high for Smith in his podcast, Junior set themselves a timeline to prove the impending stardom.

Dale Earnhardt Jr gives the incoming Sammy Smith an ambitious goal to fulfill

JR Motorsports has been a fantastic ground for promising youngsters to reach their true potential as racers. Today’s Cup Series heroes like William Byron and Chase Elliott were once students of Dale Earnhardt Jr in the Xfinity Series. Following in their lines, Sammy Smith joins the infamous outfit in 2024 in the hopes of evolving his name into a crowd-pleasing chant. In 2023, he finished 6th in the standings with 1 victory lane visit and multiple top 5 finishes.

In the coming seasons though, Dale Jr’s plans for him appear to be much larger than just being an impressive young driver who can make it to the Round of 8. Revealing his vision on ‘Dale Jr Download’, the Pied Piper of Daytona said, “He [Sammy Smith] did some great things at the end of the year that I was happy to see. Some speed, qualifying well, and racing well in a few events there. He is 19 and has a lot to learn. But, I think people will be… give us two and a half years with Sammy and see where we are.”

Smith will be getting behind the wheel of the #8 Chevy that Josh Berry drove this year. The move also marks the 19-year-old’s transition from racing in a Toyota to a Chevy. He will be joining a returning roster of 3 drivers who have re-signed with Dale Jr. for the coming year. Alongside the Championship 4 entrants Justin Allgaier and Sam Mayer, he will also share shoulders with 26-year-old Brandon Jones to form an attacking line-up of 4.

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Dale Jr aims to better himself to give his underperforming driver a better shot in 2024

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In the season that ended this week, JR Motorsports was a formidable force as it always is. Two of its drivers had made it to the Championship 4. Josh Berry had finished 11th in the standings, and Brandon Jones, 14th. While Dale Jr will not have to worry about Berry anymore, Jones still occupies his mind. 2023 was the 26-year-old’s maiden season with JRM and he failed to repeat the brilliance of his last season with Joe Gibbs Racing in 2022.

Taking the blame for the underperformance on himself, Junior gracefully set his eyes on becoming better as a team owner and giving Jones a better shot next season. He said, “Looking ahead to 2024, we have got a lot to be excited about. We are gonna make some changes. Try and improve a couple of cars. Brandon Jones. He ran better than he ran this past year. He is a race winner. It is my job and our job at JR Motorsports to give him everything he can to compete and we didn’t meet that goal this year. So, gonna do some things to get him better.”

JR Motorsports found two of its cars, those of Allgaier and Mayer, in the top 5 of the owner standings this year. Going ahead, the only goal will be to dominate that list more commandingly. The evolutions of an impactful young driver in Sammy Smith, and a proven driver in Brandon Jones will only help that cause. Along the lines of many of Dale Earnhardt Jr’s bullseye predictions, 2024 is bound to be exciting as he says!

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