JR Motorsports is dazzling in the spotlight. For the past three race weekends, Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s cars have left NASCAR fans star-struck. Daniel Suárez, Shane van Gisbergen, and Connor Zilisch’s consecutive victories have put the team on a pedestal. While two of the three are part-time entries from Cup, his full-time Xfinity boys are not doing too shabby either. Recently, one of his Xfinity rookies spoke about how Dale Jr., as the team owner, provides the right inspiration to his drivers.

The No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet team has yet to reach Victory Lane in 2025, unlike the No. 88 (Connor Zilisch) and No. 7 (Justin Allgaier) teams. However, the 1 crew is working hard nonetheless, fetching eight top-10 finishes, including three of the last four races. A runner-up at EchoPark Speedway highlights their finishes, and the No. 1 driver recently revealed the two secrets behind this success.

Dale Jr.’s driver looks up to two mentors

Carson Kvapil is still learning the ropes of NASCAR at 18 years of age. Nevertheless, Kvapil’s talents have been honed since a very young age. His father, 2003 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion Travis Kvapil, took up this task first. Travis raised Kvapil to be a hands-on type of racer, making him work on every race car that he drives and also the cars his brother Caden drove.

This approach led him to work a full 40-hour week at the JRM late model shop. Kvapil first encountered Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 2021, when the latter called him up to race a JRM Late Model Stock in a CARS Tour event. After leading for 100 laps and finishing fourth, the journey was upward for Kvapil, as he went on to clinch consecutive CARS Tour titles in 2022-23.

That hungry drive to keep winning despite his young age is what motivates Carson Kvapil. Standing in 2025 with a full-time Xfinity Series ride at Dale Jr.’s team, he knows the two mentors who fuel that drive. He revealed the same in a recent episode of NASCAR Live. Kvapil said, “Obviously, having Dale Jr. as your team owner but also as a friend in my eyes…is a super big help. Obviously, he wants his team to run good, and he wants his friends and drivers to run good, too. So, having him here really makes it nice; we can just lean on him whenever we need to, right? We adjust to the racetrack, but then when we come back, we kind of lean on Dale. For me, I lean on my dad too. And my whole crew on this No. 1 car really tried to figure out what we could do better, what we did do good with.”

And while he soaked in all the advice, Carson Kvapil has become a standout rookie of his class. He’s unfortunate that his rookie season is colliding with phenom Connor Zilisch, but he still has held his own, placing 6th in the Xfinity Series points standings while having 4 top-5 finishes and 8 top-10 finishes. With 4 top-10 finishes in his last 6 races on diverse tracks, Kvapil is proving that he’s here to stay, learn, and improve.

At last weekend’s Pit Boss/Food Maxx 250 race in Sonoma Raceway, Carson Kvapil was brilliant. He accrued 43 points while finishing 8th, increasing his buffer to 90 points over the elimination line. However, the reality of a victory eluding him remains. Kvapil needs to pay heed to Dale Jr’s words back in May if he wants to retain his seat: “Carson has to win. Carson’s future is not guaranteed. I think we can all agree that he’s got potential, and there’s something there,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “And if the right things happen the right way, that he [Kvapil] could have a 20-year career, but it easily could go the opposite way.”

Clearly, Carson Kvapil has his work cut out for him, and he is going about it by observing his super-talented peers.

Taking a leaf out of the prodigy’s book

When your teammates are extra-talented, things can get complicated. The same thing happened to Daniel Suarez at Trackhouse Racing this season. Ross Chastain’s Coca-Cola 600 victory and consistent finishes were the initial threat. Then, Shane van Gisbergen won three consecutive road course races to break his initial season slumber.

That eventually led to Trackhouse breaking ties with Suarez, who would depart at the end of 2025. However, such a situation can be more beneficial for a younger driver, as Carson Kvapil chooses to believe. The No. 1 Chevrolet driver is not the only rookie, as Connor Zilisch is there alongside him. The latter already owns 4 Xfinity Series victories, a jaw-dropping number considering that he debuted just in September last year.

With his 6th rank in the regular season championship standings, Carson Kvapil trails his teammate. Kvapil has had close defeats, including a hard-fought battle with Connor Zilisch at Circuit of The Americas. So for now, No. 1 crew chief Andrew Overstreet believes that Kvapil should learn from his team. “We’ve challenged Carson to do some things a little bit more aggressively, and everything he’s doing, he keeps getting better. He is a smart racer and has good race craft, and he doesn’t tear up his stuff. As a group, we’re trying to be more aggressive so we can get that first win and be ready once the playoffs begin, so we can make a good run at it.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s pair of rookies are giving their best, with one trying to achieve a victory and the other setting sights on a championship. Let us see if Carson Kvapil can get it done soon enough.