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NASCAR, Motorsport, USA Cup Practice Feb 12, 2025 Daytona Beach, Florida, USA NASCAR team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. looks on during practice for the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway. Daytona Beach Daytona International Speedway Florida USA, EDITORIAL USE ONLY PUBLICATIONxINxGERxSUIxAUTxONLY Copyright: xPeterxCaseyx 20250212_pjc_bc1_039
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NASCAR, Motorsport, USA Cup Practice Feb 12, 2025 Daytona Beach, Florida, USA NASCAR team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. looks on during practice for the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway. Daytona Beach Daytona International Speedway Florida USA, EDITORIAL USE ONLY PUBLICATIONxINxGERxSUIxAUTxONLY Copyright: xPeterxCaseyx 20250212_pjc_bc1_039
Kelley Earnhardt Miller recently talked about the new 2026 Cup Series schedule as her team prepares to expand to four full-time entries this season. As new details about track changes and schedule updates surfaced, Miller directly addressed how these changes affect operations at JRM. Her thoughtful perspective, shaped by years of leading the Earnhardt family team, showed a sense of relief in response to the sport’s big changes, particularly one of them.
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Kelley Earnhardt is happy for one less road course
Kelley Earnhardt Miller addressed how the October race adjustments align with her drivers’ strengths, saying, “Now that we have four full-time cars, they’ve got to look at each race like its own, right? So, I mean, they, oval, obviously, they have experience from other tracks, other mile and a halfs, and that kind of thing, that they can prep for and prepare for.”
The Charlotte Roval will not be part of its usual playoff schedule. Instead, some drafts are replacing it with oval tracks, like the 500-mile race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Miller pointed out that this change aims to reduce the unpredictability of road courses.
“I would guess that my drivers are fine without having the road course. Yeah. Because it, there’s a lot of unpredictability with the road course, and you’re either, you know, you can really either have the skill set to do that, or you don’t, right?” she said on the Dale Jr Download podcast.
The 2026 schedule changes benefit not just the drivers but also the mechanics and engineers at JRM. Preparing for a road course involves more than just changing tires, as Kelley pointed out.
“You can work on it and fine-tune, and I know that they’ve done a lot of things like that to do, but yeah, it should make a load lighter in a lot of cases. Right? And I can’t recall what’s kinda back to back around there and everything, but there’s a whole different ball game, and getting ready for the road course races, and the cars, and so on and so forth.”
For a four-car team, changing from an oval race to a road course race requires a complete update of the cars. Kelley noted that the 2026 schedule reduces the challenges of preparing for back-to-back races. This, in turn, helps prevent burnout among the fabrication and setup teams.
When asked about the impact on the staff, she agreed it would be “easier” and a “lift for the people back at the shop as well.” This strategic win coincides with JRM’s need for consistency as they compete against well-funded Cup-affiliated programs.
By removing the high-variance road course races from critical spots in the schedule, JRM can utilize its extensive mile-and-a-half data to ensure all four cars are optimized.
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Kevin Harvick is excited for Dale Jr.’s team ahead of the 2026 season
JR Motorsports aims to dominate the 2026 O’Reilly Auto Parts Series after improving its scheduling. The team made a major hire by bringing on championship crew chief Rodney Childers, who previously worked with Kevin Harvick. Harvick praised this addition on his Happy Hour podcast, calling it a game-changer for the team.
Childers, who guided Harvick to his 2014 Cup title, steps in after his time at Stewart-Haas Racing and Spire Motorsports, bringing proven expertise to oversee JRM’s expanded lineup. Harvick’s excitement centered on Childers’ fit within JRM’s multi-car garage and oval-centric racing style.
“I’m so intrigued… Just him working on what we raced so well with that style of car. Somewhat in the Grand National Series, is very intriguing to me,” Harvick said, emphasizing Childers’ insights into team dynamics and driver development.
He spotlighted Carson Kvapil’s potential evolution under this leadership: “I think that the evolution that we’ll see Carson go through, just having a leader like Rodney and the experience that Rodney has, is going to be fun to watch as well.” Kvapil and Connor Zilisch share the No. 1 car. Kvapil brings talent while Childers provides a proven plan for quick improvements.