Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s protégé gets a full-time NASCAR title

Carson Kvapil has proven himself at every level and will be rewarded with a full-time opportunity in the NASCAR Xfinity Series in JR Motorsports’ No. 1 car next season.

The 21-year-old son of 2003 Truck Series champion Travis Kvapil won in his modestly run, family-owned Super Late Model, which the elder Kvapil and his sons had been working on all week, which caught the attention of JR Motorsports the process dragged on.

When Josh Berry left the NASCAR Championship in 2020 to run it full-time, a gap was left in their successful Super Late Model program, and Kvapil competed in back-to-back CARS Tour Championships in 2022 and 2023. He would have been looking to take the championship for the third time in a row that season, but received a call to compete in a number of Xfinity Series races.

He had eight starts with four top-10 finishes and could even have won races at Dover and Indianapolis.

Now he’s working full-time with fellow Late Model racer turned crew chief Mardy Lindley, taking over the remaining car while Sam Mayer moves to the Haas Factory team next year.

Kvapil most recently won the season’s most prestigious Late Model Stock race, the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 at Martinsville Speedway, which attracts over 80 teams each year.