Short Track Weekly: A New Chapter For Connor Hall in 2025

There’s a new ace in town at JR Motorsports.

In a tale of a star driver meeting a superstar team, Connor Hall will take the reins of the JR Motorsports late model program in 2025, with hopes of capturing a CARS Tour championship.

Hall already has plenty of accomplishments on his late model resume, most notably being the two-time defending NASCAR Advanced Auto Parts Weekly Series National Champion.

When it was announced Hall would drive for Nelson Motorsports in 2024, many thought the combination would lead to strong runs and potentially a CARS title. The success came quickly, but the team fell just short of a title. Hall picked up a CARS Tour victory and a win in the South Boston 200, but he ultimately came up one spot shy of the CARS Late Model Stock title, losing to longtime rival Brenden Queen.

The Virginia native starts a new chapter in 2025, looking to capture the trophies that got away in 2024 and forge his path to NASCAR much like Carson Kvapil and Josh Berry before him.

Frontstretch caught up with Hall ahead of the CARS Tour championship race at North Wilkesboro Speedway, covering everything from his racing upbringing to his first contract conversations with Dale Earnhardt Jr. and a reflection of his 2024 season with Nelson Motorsports.

Chase Folsom, Frontstretch: It was recently announced that you’re moving to JR Motorsports in 2025 to join their late model program. … How did that deal come about, when did you and Dale [Earnhardt Jr.] start those conversations and what are your expectations for next year?

Connor Hall: It kind of started at Hampton Heat. Dale obviously came and ran, and we got to chatting about the track and different things about his experience there, really just kind of chatting like anybody would as far as just the race weekend.

By the end of the chat he kind of was like ‘Hey, what do you have going on next year, we might have a unique opportunity to get someone in the car,” and just to come talk to him and Kelly [Earnhardt-Miller] and L.W. [Miller] about it. So I moseyed on down to Mooresville and we had a pretty productive chat. (Now) here we are.

Folsom: A lot of people probably don’t know what your upbringing in racing was like, so how did you get your start in racing and what’s been the journey for you to this point?

Hall: When I was little, I was a big BMX motorcycle kid, or I guess dirt bike kid. I Grew up BMXing a ton, (but it) just wasn’t my dad’s speed, I guess. He came from the unlimited Hydroplane racing and my mom grew up in Hickory, so (I was) just kind of always around the stock car stuff. I think the two of them were just like this isn’t that fun, so Santa Claus brought me a go-kart when I was eight.

I karted from when I was nine until 13 or 14. Then I went from Legends cars to late models and then found a home here for now, hopefully. Obviously I’ve dabbled in the K&N stuff, some ARCA stuff and got to make my Truck Series debut in August, so (I’m) trying to find a way (to move up), but as we know, it’s a hard process.

Folsom: You mentioned the Truck Series debut, what was that experience like, getting to jump to the NASCAR ranks. How much different is it there, and do you see an avenue for you to make some more starts there next year?

Hall: As far as the starts go, I feel like I’m ready now. It just takes so much support to make that happen. So we’re actively looking and exercising every avenue we have with partners and whatnot try and get more attempts. As far as what it was like, it went by like that. It’s a one-day show. You get, I think it was 20 minutes, of practice, two laps of qualifying and you’re straight into the race.

Overall, it was a dream come true. I went to my first ever Cup (Series) race when I was eight or so at Richmond, when I was little. So to be able to make my first national series start, or I guess my first Truck start, there was awesome.

Folsom: You’ve been very accomplished in a late model. … What all is there that you would like to accomplish as a part of the JR Motorsports late model program? What’s still on the bucket list for you?

Hall: Obviously a CARS Tour championship would be really cool, but I think I just want to get to the point where every time I hit the racetrack I’m a threat. I feel like we’re definitely close, I feel like every now and then like this year, we definitely hit some hard spots where we’d go to a place and struggle a bit.

I think I just want to get to the point where my misses aren’t as big and there’s just a little bit more consistency no matter where I go. Right now, I feel like I have a really good hold on (things). If there’s 10 tracks in the series, I have a pretty good hold on seven of them. I just want to work on perfecting those and then improving on the other three or whatever the amount would be.

As far as something else, I’d definitely like to win a (Virginia) Triple Crown and I’d definitely like to win a Grandfather Clock, because that’s the one race out of the trio that I’m missing. I would say 1% of late model racers get the opportunity to win that one, so I think it would be really really cool to win a grandfather clock and a CARS Tour championship.

Folsom: Staying on the track of this season, you won one of the triple crown races, you’ve won a CARS Tour race, had a successful year and won a national championship. If you guys aren’t able to cap off the series championship tomorrow night, would you call this season a success?

Hall: I would say for what it was intended to be, yes. When we sat down and discussed this thing for the first time last November, we all knew that it was going to be a building year for sure. Just because at the time, I intended to try and make Nelson (better). I figured this was going to be my best opportunity for a while, I just figured this was hopefully going to be a multi-year deal. So we kind of knew that we’d probably bump our heads a couple times and just try to figure out as much as we can the first year so that if we got year two, we’d be that much better together.

Obviously year two is not going to happen, but I think the number one thing is like I’ve learned a lot as a driver/kind of as a person, I guess. I feel like I’ve matured a lot this year. It’s one thing to come into a program and try to help it be better and still win races. (But) I don’t think I would have won the SoBo 200 this year without these guys. There’s a lot of things that we did accomplish together.

Number one, I met an amazing group of people. The hardest part of leaving this whole deal is the people. There’s good cars, bad cars, average cars and whatever. But at the end of the day, they have an amazing group of people. I joked, they’re not disappearing, I’m going to be right beside them some weekends. I’ve just really enjoyed my time with them.

Folsom: Final Question for you. Five years from now, the year 2029, where do you see yourself?

Hall: 2029. Well, at a bare minimum I pray I’m at least Truck racing full-time. I’ve always said I’m cool to go Truck racing full-time. I’m cool to go Xfinity (Series) racing full-time. Obviously my dream is to make it to the Cup Series, but just with the way that the business model works I’m not going to take anything for granted. If I get the opportunity to race a national series full-time, and make an income doing what I love I think that would be a huge win for me.