All eyes on JR Motorsports in Saturday's Suburban Propane 300

BRISTOL, Tenn. - Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s career as a full-time driver is over, but his presence will certainly be felt during Saturday's Suburban Propane 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway. Earnhardt's JR Motorsports will field a dominant fleet of five Chevrolets in the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series race, headlined by Kyle Larson in the No. 88 and Connor Zilsch in the No. 1. Points leader Justin Allgaier will be gunning for his fourth win of the season while youngsters Sammy Smith and Carson Kvapil, both ranked in the top seven in points, will round out the JR Motorsports dream team. Larson is the defending winner of the Food City 500 and has won two of the last three Cup races at BMS. Needless to say, he is excited to get back to the concreted banks in Bristol. "Bristol is one of the most fun tracks we go to because you can really move around and search for grip," Larson said. "I love being able to run up by the wall and carry speed, especially in traffic. It's intense, things happen quick, but that's what makes it so exciting." At 19 years of age, Zilisch is a rising star in his first season of full-time Cup competition with Trackhouse Racing. Zilisch has run strong at Bristol, but is hungry to cap a strong performance with a good finish. "We ran well there last year, but we didn't quite get the finishes we wanted in both races," he said. "We led a lot of laps in the fall race so I'm confident that we're going to have a good Roto-Rooter Chevrolet when we get there this weekend and be able to move forward. The track is really cool. It widens out a lot in the race and both lanes get rolling." Allgaier has been dominant so far this season. He has three top-four finishes to go along with his three wins in nine races and is returning to a track that has been kind to him over the course of his career. In 26 career O'Reilly Auto Parts Series starts at BMS, Algaier has finished in the top five 12 times with two career victories. "Bristol has always been my favorite track on the schedule and a place where I have always felt very comfortable at," Allgaier said. "We've been really strong here for a long time. If we can keep our nose clean and all the fenders on it, I see no reason why we won't be right up front in contention when it counts Saturday night." Allgaier has some extra incentive to drive his No. 7 Chevy into Victory Lane on Saturday night. He will battle William Sawalich, Rajah Caruth and Brandon Jones for a $100,000 Dash 4 Cash bonus. Sawalich, who drives the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 Toyota, earned his spot in the Dash 4 Cash competition by winning his first career O'Reilly Series race last weekend in Rockingham. It's a fitting car number, because it matches Sawalich's age. On Tuesday's episode of the Dale Jr. Download podcast, Earnhardt marveled at the success Sawalich and other drivers are achieving at such a young age. "This is the easiest thing for me to do is look back at myself when I was 19," Earnhardt said. "Was I ready for that? No. Would I have failed? Yes. Not at that age. I was not prepared for anything like that." Joe Gibbs Racing has stood as the top challenger to Chevrolet, which has emerged as the dominant manufacturer in the O'Reilly Series. Out of the 38 entries in Saturday night's race, 32 of them will be Chevys. Sawalich sits at 11th in the points standings and Jones is eighth. Taylor Gray is also off to a solid start for JGR and is currently 12th in points. Caruth will be racing for the Dash 4 Cash bonus, but it won't be in a JR Motorsports entry. Caruth signed on for 23 of the 33 races with JR Motorsports and is competing for the points title this season, which means he has had to fill in the remaining 10 races on the schedule with another race team. Coming off a season-best fourth-place finish at Rockingham last week, Caruth will run the No. 32 Chevy for Jordan Anderson Racing on Saturday. Ford fans will be united on Saturday behind the Blue Oval's lone entry in the field. JJ Yeley will run the Hettinger Racing entry in the Suburban Propane 300.