When the University of Alabama took home the championship several years in a row, the expression was that they didn’t rebuild; they just reload.

Dale Earnhardt Jr and his JR Motorsports Xfinity Series racing team does pretty much the same thing.  Two years ago, Noah Gragson, Mam Mayer, Josh Berry, and Justin Allgaier all drove for JRM and dominated the series.

Over the past couple of seasons; Josh Berry and Noah Gragson have both moved on to the Cup Series.  Brandon Jones and Sammy Smith have come in to replace the drivers who left.

But not yet ready to relax, JRM is adding another car to the team on a part time basis.

In February, 17 year old Connor Zilisch was a part of the winning team in Daytona for the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona.  He will celebrate his 18th birthday on the race track driving the 88 car for JRM at Watkins Glen International.

Zilisch will also be racing at Kansas Speedway, Homestead-Miami, and the closing race of the season at Phoenix.

According to the NASCAR rules, a driver must be 18 years of age in order to race on a track larger than one mile.

JRM CEO Kelley Earnhardt Miller spoke on the addition of Zilisch to the team via a statement saying, “we couldn’t be happier to welcome Connor into the JR Motorsports family and to give him an opportunity behind the wheel of our number  88 Chevrolet.  Connor is an extremely talented young man and we can’t wait to see what he can do when he gets to the track with us at Watkins Glen.”

Just 17 and Zilisch has already filled a number of spots in his trophy case with multiple national karting championships; he has also set a number of records along the way…oh, and he has a Rolex watch!

Zilisch spoke on his signing with JRM saying, “it’s a dream come true to have the opportunity to race in the Xfinity Series with JR Motorsports for select races this year.  I have a lot to learn, considering that I’ve never raced in stock cars on the big tracks, but there’s no better team to learn with than JRM. I can’t thank everyone at Chevrolet enough for all their support in helping me get to this point, and I can’t wait to give my all to make the most of this opportunity.”

JRM plans on running some additional races with the number 88 car and will announce the drivers for those races at a later date.