DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – For a while Verizon IndyCar Series driver Graham Rahal and NASCAR superstar Dale Earnhardt Jr. have occasionally poked fans about a potential future collaboration for JR Motorsports at Daytona International Speedway but the soon-retiring Cup driver seems reluctant about it happening, at least anytime soon.
For years, Rahal has long thought about making his XFINITY Series debut near home at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio or embracing the restrictor plate racing madness of Daytona’s 2.5-mile high banks, but in all necessities in racing, the 28-year-old would need funding and an available team to get the green light.
For Earnhardt, while the opportunity would be well received and likely create a media bonanza between the two motorsports series, he wants to remain focused on his full-time drivers in XFINITY Series competition and the notion of expanding to a fifth car may be more than the Mooresville, N.C. team can handle.
“It’s improbable,” Earnhardt told members of the media Friday at Daytona. “We have four cars that are full and hopefully that’s the way it’s going to stay. We don’t want to be in the all-star business where we have a car that has six or seven different drivers in it.
“It’s great and there’s good money in that, and it’s great because there’s usually more money in that. But we enjoy having four cars racing for the title and focusing on those efforts.
“To run a fifth car spreads us really thin. We have to do it every now and then, but as long as we have four full-time cars, it’s just not a good possibility.”
For the first time since JR Motorsports inception, the team expanded to four full-time cars this season with drivers Justin Allgaier, Michael Annett, William Byron and Elliott Sadler. Through 15 races, JRM has scored two victories with Allgaier and Byron and controls the top three positions in the standings with Sadler, Allgaier and Byron respectively.
In all reality, Rahal seems poised to focus on the growth of his Rahal Letter Racing team rather than a clouded audition in stock cars. Through 10 races, the son of IndyCar legend Bobby Rahal sits sixth in the series standings on the heels of a weekend sweep in the Chevrolet Grand Prix at the Raceway of Belle Isle near Detroit.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
