Jeffrey Earnhardt joins Sam Hunt Racing for “multiple races”

Jeffrey Earnhardt has rejoined the Toyota stable for the 2022 NASCAR Xfinity Series. After two years at JD Motorsports, he announced Friday that he has signed with Sam Hunt Racing for “multiple races” in the upcoming season. He will drive the #26 Toyota Supra, though specific dates were not immediately revealed. ForeverLawn, Inc., who was a sponsor at JDM, follows him to SHR.

“Welcome home, Jeffrey Earnhardt,” posted the team on social media. “We are thrilled to have you and ForeverLawn, Inc. on board with us for multiple races this season. Gearing up to be an exciting year!”

The fourth-generation driver spent the last two seasons at JDM as a full-timer. Despite not running the first four races in 2020 and initially signing on as a part-time driver, he enjoyed a solid campaign with twelve top-twenty finishes and a points placement of twenty-third. However, 2021 only had six such runs as he attempted all but one race, failed to qualify for three, and placed three spots lower in the standings. Earnhardt has not run every race in a national series season since the 2014 Xfinity slate with JDM, where he finished sixteenth.

His first experience with Toyota came during the second half of 2018 when he ran much of the Cup Series events for Gaunt Brothers Racing. The following year, he joined Joe Gibbs Racing (an SHR ally) which entailed sporadic starts for the team’s Xfinity programme and driving for the newly formed XCI Racing there and in Cup. Despite aspirations of going full-time Cup racing with XCI, he departed the team in the summer and XCI has since disappeared.

Earnhardt is the second announced driver in SHR’s #26 after Ryan Truex was hired for the season opener and more on Thursday. The #26 finished twenty-third in the 2021 owner standings with the likes of Grant Enfinger, Santino Ferrucci, Colin Garrett, Brandon Gdovic, Dylan Lupton, John Hunter Nemechek, Will Rodgers, and Kris Wright.