One of the most intriguing Silly Season stories in the NASCAR Xfinity Series is who will drive the 8 car for Jr Motorsports in 2024? Multiple different drivers have been rumored to be in the running for that car, but when will JRM finally announce that driver for 2024?
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JRM tends to announce their drivers around the same time frame. A few of their prominent drivers were announced around the middle of the month of August. Josh Berry (August 16, 2021), William Byron (August 18, 2016), and Sam Mayer (August 9, 2022) were all signed during this time.
One late JRM signing was Noah Gragson. Gragson was signed on September 25, 2018, which is pretty close to the same time of year as we write this.
The problem is that if JRM is going to sign any candidate by this time frame, they would need to announce something this weekend, and there is nothing on the docket regarding JR Motorsports in the media center. Not only that, but no report has been given out regarding JRM either, so, it seems that it will not happen anytime soon.
So, what types of things need to happen for JRM to make that move? What are they waiting on?
Xfinity Series rides, even the most prominent ones, are interesting when it comes to Silly Season. In some cases, they may take precedence over some non-competitive Cup Series rides, but oftentimes they do not. As a result, many Xfinity Series teams tend to wait to sign their drivers because they have a better idea of what the talent pool is for their rides.
Again, JRM is a different Xfinity Series ride given their status, so that is why they sign their drivers a bit earlier than other teams tend to do. However, there is likely another thing that could be holding this up, sponsorship.
JRM needs a driver that has a lot of sponsorship, so, whatever driver is on their radar likely needs to find sponsorship. That does not always happen overnight, and some drivers and their groups need to take time to get sponsorship. That could be holding back whatever driver could be a candidate to drive for JRM next season.
So, to answer the question of when JRM will sign their driver for 2024, it is a complete unknown. This is out of the ordinary given JRM’s normal signing of drivers. As a result, it is not impossible that this goes on deep into the Playoffs, and it may not be until the offseason.
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