Let's get one thing straight. It's pronounced J.R. Motorsports, not Junior Motorsports. At least that's the way Dale Earnhardt Jr pronounces it. I suppose the guys in the media can call it whatever they like, I'll go with the name the owner goes by.

Originally a management company formed to handle Dale Jr's licensing and business deals, JR Motorsports became a full-on race team in 2002 when a late model stock car race team began operating out of a small building on Junior's property near his home in Mooresville, North Carolina with just 1 employee.

Today the race team operates out of a modern 66,000 square foot race shop near downtown Mooresville and employs over 60 people.

The roster of drivers who have competed in the Busch series for JR Motorsports include Mark McFarland, Shane Huffman, Robby Gordon, Martin Truex Jr, and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

T.J. Majors drove the first race for the new team at Concord Motorsports Park in the Street Stock division. The team would compete in 10 races that first year.

The team got it's first feature win in at Motor Mile Speedway in Radford, Virginia on August 21, 2004.

On July 30, 2007 JR Motorsports announced they will combine forces with Hendrick Motorsports to field 2 cars in the NASCAR Busch Series. The teams will operate out of Junior's facility with Hendrick engines and chassis.

Dale Jr will be listed as the owner of the No. 8 car, wile Rick Hendrick will be listed as the owner of the No. 5 car.

"It's a great opportunity to have the wholesale support that Hendrick Motorsports is going to provide," said Earnhardt. "Being a relatively new team owner in this sport, this is a huge step for me and everyone at JR Motorsports. It was never part of the equation when I was deciding where to drive next year, but it seemed to be a natural progression once Rick and I began talking about the transition into 2008."

Earnhardt says he has no immediate plans to field a cup team out of JR Motorsports, but left the door open, saying it was a possibility “years down the road.”

"It was just so, so far down the road, it was ridiculous to even think about or dream about it," Junior said of becoming a car owner in NASCAR’s premiere series. "Being closer and closer to something like that being a reality, it's always a possibility."

Dale Jr has looked to his past for help running the company. In June 2007 Tony Eury was hired away from Dale Earnhardt, Inc to become Director of Competittion at JR Motorsports.

Eury was Junior’s crew chief beginning when Junior first started in the Busch series. Together the 2 won 2 Busch championships before moving on to NASCAR’s Cup series.

Eury had been a full time employee of DEI since 1987, and had worked with Dale Earnhardt both as a part-time employee and unpaid helper since 1976.

Before joining up with Dale Jr, Eury had been a crew chief for svveral Busch series drivers at DEI including Neil Bonnett, Michael Waltrip, Steve Park, and Dale Earnhardt.

"I remember Dale coming up to me and asking if I could make a driver out of Dale Jr.," Eury said. "My remark to him was I don't know why we can't. Why would you want to spend money on someone else's kid when you can spend money on your own kid?"

Eury now oversees competition and technical support at JR Motorsports, working closely with crew chiefs and team engineers from all racing divisions.

Shop location

152 S Iredell Industrial Park Rd
Mooresville, NC 28115

Contact JR Motorsports

JR Motorsports, LLC
PO Box 330
Mooresville, NC 28115

Phone 704-799-4800

Fax 704-799-4801

email info@jrmotorsport.com

www.jrmotorsport.com

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Speed 1

JR Motorsports has teamed with the cable channel Speed to provide a SPEED 1, a fleet of demonstration cars for the 2007 NASCAR Nextel Cup series.

Dale Jr's race shop has built a fleet of Car of Tomorrow, Superspeedway, and intermediate track cars that SPEED broadcasters use in their NASCAR coverage.

The cars are driven by Jimmy Spencer and Kenny Wallace during Speed's pre-race and post-race coverage of NASCAR.

SPEED wanted to let it's viewers experience actual race conditions in a real race car.

We wanted to do more than cruise around the track in an old show car," said Hunter Nickell, SPEED Executive VP & General Manager. "We want to take viewers and fans as inside as we can get them with real equipment. If we do our job right, SPEED is not just telling viewers what's going on, we're showing them. By creating the SPEED 1 program, we will give the viewers an opportunity to watch a race like they've never watched it before."

The cars travel to NASCAR Nextel Cup races each weekend, but during the week they are on display to the public at JR Motorsports in Mooresville, North Carolina.

The cars are filmed on the track using multiple camera angles to give viewers a true-life experience of passing, getting on to and off of pit road, making a pit stop, and where the fastest line is around the track.

The cars were built especially for the SPEED Channel project, with Richard Childress Racing providing the engines, so as to give viewers the most realistic experience possible. Kenny Wallace took one up to 190 MPH at Daytona and was so impressed he wanted to put his sponsor's logo on the side and race it. Apparently these aren't' recycled show cars, but the real deal race cars.