When Dale Earnhardt Jr signed with Hendrick Motorsports, he began driving the number 88 car.  When Jr retired from full time racing, the HMS number 88 car went to Alex Bowman.

On April 26, Dale Jr and JR Motorsports announced that they fill add a fifth JR Motorsports car in the Xfinity Series for some of the races.

Sponsored by HendrickCars.com; HMS drivers William Byron, Chase Elliott, and Kyle Larson will share the driving duties of the number 88 car.  Chase Elliott will be the first to drive the car at Darlington Raceway on May 7;  William Byron will drive at Texas Motor Speedway on May 21 and at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on July 16; Kyle Larson will run the last two races at Watkins Glen International on August 20 and the second Darlington race on September 3.  Elliott, Byron, and Larson are all past Xfinity Series champions.

Earnhardt and HMS owner Rick Hendrick have had a long term partnership that includes co-ownership of automobile dealerships in Tallahassee, Florida and Hendrick’s minority ownership in JR Motorsports.

President of the Hendrick Automotive Group Greg Gach spoke on the partnership saying, “the NASCAR platform has been instrumental in helping us build HendrickCars.com into a national brand, and we look forward to continuing that momentum through this expanded effort.  We are committed to our racing programs and supporting our Hendrick Motorsports teammates whenever we can, and we know these additional races will benefit our drivers and teams. We’re also excited to work with Dale Jr. on this opportunity. He’s a terrific partner whose dealerships have created tremendous value for our General Motors customers. It’s a win-win for everyone.”

Miguel Paludo drove the number 88 car in the Xfinity Series at Circuit of the Americas and Dale Jr himself drove the car in his once a year race at Martinsville Speedway.

Crews and crew chiefs for the races will be announced at a later date.