Newly-minted NASCAR Cup Series teammates Ross Chastain and Shane van Gisbergen will join JR Motorsports’ Xfinity Series program on a part-time basis in 2025, the team announced on Jan. 9.
The Trackhouse Racing duo will drive JRM’s fifth part-time car, the No. 9, in a grand total of nine races. Chastain will contest five races, while van Gisbergen will take the wheel for the other four.
Chastain will open the season for the team in the third race of the Xfinity season at Circuit of the Americas on March 1. After that, he will drive the car at Darlington Raceway on April 5, Nashville Superspeedway on May 31, Dover Motor Speedway on July 19 and Iowa Speedway on Aug. 2.
Van Gisbergen, whose schedule consists of only road courses, will make his first Xfinity start at Autodromos Hermanos Rodriguez on June 14, in the Xfinity Series’ return to Mexico City. He’ll follow that up by driving the car at the Chicago street course on July 5, Sonoma Raceway on June 12 and Watkins Glen International on Aug. 9.
Chastain and van Gisbergen will serve as valuable assets to JRM’s full-time program, which consists of rookies Carson Kvapil and Connor Zilisch (who is a Trackhouse driver, therefore true teammates with the duo), as well as young gun Sammy Smith and defending series champion Justin Allgaier.
The No. 9 now becomes the part-time fifth car for JRM, as Zilisch will drive the No. 88 in 2025, the team’s previous fifth car which ran in 17 races in 2024. Kvapil, Zilisch, Bubba Pollard, Connor Mosack, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. each drove the car, with Zilisch winning in it at Watkins Glen.
The No. 9 was driven full-time by Brandon Jones in 2023 and 2024. Further details on the team beyond Chastain and van Gisbergen driving the car have not been announced, including whether or not Earnhardt will make his annual one-off appearance in the car.
About the author
Anthony Damcott joined Frontstretch in March 2022. Currently, he is an editor and co-authors Fire on Fridays (Fridays); he is also the primary Truck Series reporter/writer and secondary short track writer. He also serves as an at-track reporter and assists with social media when he can. A proud West Virginia Wesleyan College alum from Akron, Ohio, Anthony is now a grad student. He is a theatre actor and fight-choreographer-in-training in his free time.
You can keep up with Anthony by following @AnthonyDamcott on X.
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