JR Motorsports’ No. 1 car, piloted full-time by Carson Kvapil in 2025, emerged as a quietly reliable contender as the season progressed. The No. 1 entry secured 7 top 5s and 14 top 10s, showing steady improvement as Kvapil adapted to Xfinity-level racing.

While the car hadn’t yet captured its first win, the season-long focus was on building consistency, refining setups, and minimizing mistakes, rather than solely aiming for speed. Now, probably to give this force a better direction, JRM has announced a new crew chief, Rodney Childers.

Childers steps in

JR Motorsports announced a major shake-up in its crew chief lineup for the 2026 NASCAR Xfinity Series (soon to be called the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series). The headline: former Cup Series champion crew chief Rodney Childers will lead the team’s No. 1 Chevrolet car in 2026. The announcement marks a big win for JRM and a sign that the team is doubling down on technical strength and veteran leadership.

To set the stage, Childers brings a tremendous résumé.

He racked up 40 Cup Series wins and guided Kevin Harvick to the 2014 championship during his tenure at Stewart-Haas Racing. Now he’s moving to the Xfinity level with a high-profile team owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr. This shows how serious JRM is about building a structure not just for 2026, but for long-term performance.

“Rodney’s resume and career speak for themselves,” Earnhardt Jr. said in the official release.

Beyond just the No. 1 car, the broader lineup of crew chief promotions and assignments indicates JRM is reshuffling to blend experience, engineering talent, and driver development. While JRM hasn’t publicly detailed every assignment yet, industry trackers have noted other names, such as Andrew Overstreet staying in a leadership role, and newer engineering-minded chiefs, such as Corey Shea and Phillip Bell, being placed to lead teams in 2026.

The team appears to be using Childers not just for his tactical acumen, but also his ability to mentor young talent. In the official JRM release, Childers stated, “I’m so excited to be joining the JRM family… I get to be the lucky guy to lead two amazing young men who have a huge amount of talent and a big future in our sport.”

Childers is set to guide the dynamic duo of Carson Kvapil and Connor Zilisch.

What this all signals is that JRM is positioning itself for more than incremental gains. With Childers at the helm of the No. 1 car and a fresh mix of engineers and coaches leading other entries, the team is building depth.

In a season where competition in the Xfinity O’Reilly series is fierce and budgets are being stretched, synergies from Cup teams are critical. Having veteran leadership can make the difference between contending and merely playing catch-up. Pairing Carson Kvapil’s upward trajectory with Childers’ proven playbook could turn those near misses into podiums, and the whole stable benefits from the ripple effect of sharper setups and smarter race calls.

While JRM gears up with a championship pedigree on the technical side, Dale Earnhardt Jr. keeps things real off the track, proving even a guy with a $300 million net worth can flop on a simple purchase.

Even Dale Jr. has buyer’s remorse

On a recent episode of Bless Your Heart, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his wife Amy Earnhardt traded stories about stuff they wish they’d skipped. Dale Jr.’s regret centered on an energy drink gone wrong.

Amy jumped in first with a parent classic: she bought cotton candy for their daughter, Isla, and instantly regretted the sugar bomb, and stashed it in the garage fridge, where it still sits untouched. She admitted that checkout line meltdowns sometimes win, but the treat gets hidden the second they’re home. Nothing major beyond that, she said.

Dale Jr., though, had a funnier flop.

“I bought this drink. I bought this like an energy drink that I didn’t like. A buddy of mine told me about it. He’s like, ‘Hey man, you should try this.’ And I bought it, and I’m like, I got a case because I was like, ‘Oh, I had to order it.’ So, my guy, he likes it. I’m sure it’s great.”

He laughed, recalling the hype crash. “I drank one of them, and I was like, ‘Damn, I got all this crap. It’s miserable. I can’t drink this…’ Cuz you get excited and you’re like, ‘Yeah, I want to try this. It’s going to be awesome.’ And it came, and I drank one, and I was like, ‘Yeah, I can’t drink no more of this. This is terrible.”

Honestly, it ties right back to the JRM mindset.

Childers now joins: test, learn, adjust. One bad case of energy drink doesn’t tank the operation, just like one season without a win doesn’t define Kvapil. In a shop building title contenders, a little buyer’s remorse keeps everyone grounded, and a veteran like Childers ensures the real investments pay off on Saturdays.