JR Motorsports Drops No. 9 Chevrolet Entry for Las Vegas Race
The No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet will not compete at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and the team has not entered the car for the event. The team sits 15th in the owner standings despite running just 17 of the first 27 races on the 2026 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series schedule.
That standing is the third highest among those that did not qualify for the postseason. The entry’s success stems from three victories this season, tying the team for third in the series despite its limited schedule.
Shared Victories and Driver Lineups Drive Owner Standings
Full-time Trackhouse Racing Cup drivers Shane van Gisbergen and Ross Chastain drove the No. 9 Chevrolet to those three wins. Van Gisbergen captured victories on the road courses at Circuit of the Americas and Sonoma Raceway. Chastain claimed his first series victory since 2019 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
SVG and Chastain combined for eight starts in the entry during the regular season. Carson Kvapil made five starts in the No. 9 car while sharing JR Motorsports’ No. 1 Chevrolet with Trackhouse Cup driver Connor Zilisch. Kvapil drove the No. 9 entry as needed during the regular season to retain his status as a full-time driver and title contender before moving to the full-time role in the No. 1 Chevrolet.
Apart from Lee Pulliam, who made one start at Martinsville Speedway in March, Jake Finch is the only other driver to pilot the No. 9 Chevrolet this season. Finch made a single regular season appearance at EchoPark Speedway (Atlanta Motor Speedway) and has since run two of the first three races of the postseason at Darlington Raceway and Bristol Motor Speedway.
Upcoming Schedule Changes for Jake Finch and the No. 9 Team
Finch recorded a career-high 11th-place finish at Bristol Motor Speedway. Despite that result, the team will skip Las Vegas Motor Speedway, leaving Finch out of the field for Saturday’s race.
Finch entered the year with just one prior career O’Reilly Series start, which came at Dover Motor Speedway in 2025 for Hendrick Motorsports. He is scheduled to make two more starts before the conclusion of the 2026 season. Those upcoming appearances include next weekend’s race at Charlotte Motor Speedway and a start at Talladega Superspeedway two weekends later.
JR Motorsports holds no plans to field the No. 9 car for any other driver during the remaining events on the 2026 calendar. Those unentered races consist of this weekend at Las Vegas, alongside upcoming stops at Phoenix Raceway, Martinsville Speedway, and Homestead-Miami Speedway.