JHN is out of Legacy Motor Club. So where will he go next? With 11 wins in the O’Reilly Series and 13 wins and a regular-season Truck Series title. Plus winning one of the most prestigious late model races ever, the Snowball Derby, at only 17 years old. Mix that with his top-5 to top-10 runs and finishes in a middle-of-the-pack LMC No.42 car, and JHN should be in Cup.
And with so many rides available next year, odds are he will be. Especially since he did have a sponsor lined up for 2027. But where will he go, and will it be an improvement over the No.42 or a lateral move? Would he even want to stay in Cup if he isn’t offered a top ride?
No.5 JR Motorsports!
While there are many Cup options available, the allure of a JRM O’Reilly ride can’t be denied. Given that they’ve been the top team, or at least one of the top teams, in NASCAR’s second tier through many different eras since starting life in 2005. With 4 driver’s titles and 120 wins to their name in two decades and some change. Even for a driver in Cup, it’s always tempting to move a step down the ladder and experience the joys of being in contention to win week after week again. Maybe even earn a championship of their own.
JHN wouldn’t be the first driver to come from the Cup Series to step into a JRM ride and start winning and competing for titles. With Elliott Sadler, Regan Smith, Michael Annett, Aric Almirola, and Justin Allgaier. All coming down from Cup to win races or at least finish top 10 in points. With Sadler and Smith even becoming title contenders and current JRM driver Justin Allgaier finally getting his title in 2024.
JHN has had plenty of experience racing against JRM cars, making it plain to see that in Dale Jr’s equipment, he would immediately start winning races and contending for O’Reilly titles. JHN won 11 races in the series with top teams like JGR and CGR. Finishing 7th and 4th in the standings in JHN’s two full seasons in the series.
But even if his ambition is to stay in the Cup Series, JHN is no stranger to using the lower series as a stopgap to return to Cup. He did the same thing after his single year with Front Row Motorsports in 2020, where he had three top-tens and had many promising runs for a Cup Series rookie. But despite that, in 2021 he returned to the Truck Series driving for KBM, where he won seven races in two seasons. Then drove a season for JGR in the Xfinity Series in 2023, winning seven races and finishing fourth in points. Then, in 2024 was called back up to Cup by LMC to drive their No.42.
Aric Almirola also did the same with JRM in 2011. Earning 18 top-tens and finishing 9th in the standings in the final season Cup drivers could compete in the lower series. This was a good enough job to convince “The King,” Richard Petty, to put him in the 43 he made famous. And if it can do that for Aric, the now-available No.1 team could be where JHN makes a resurgence. With Sammy Smith out of JRM and Carson Kvapil replacing him in the No.8.
No.4 Haas Factory Team!
One team already heavily linked to JHN is the Haas Factory Team! It hasn’t been a secret that the 41 team split from three-time champion Tony Stewart in 2024. With their now single-car Cup team only having 4 top-tens in the 62 races, the name Stewart has not been on their banner.
Luckily, it’s not their Cup team that he’s linked to but their much more successful O’Reilly team. Which, since 2025, has won two races, and in 2026 both their drivers made the Chase. With Sheldon Creed third in points heading into the Chase and Sam Mayer tenth at the start of the Chase.
While JRM and Haas are both top Chevy Xfinity teams, with JRM having more history and success, it looks like the better option, but Haas does have its advantages. Especially if JHN does plan on returning to Cup.
JRM, of course, doesn’t have a Cup team, and while it’s most closely linked to Hendrick, it’s always been a Chevy development team first and foremost. Haas does have a Cup team, one that could buy a charter from another team at any moment. And if Haas ever does that, if JHN joins their O’Reilly team, that would put him in pole position to join Haas’ second Cup team.
And even if that doesn’t happen, there’s still reason to believe a Haas O’Reilly ride would turn into a Haas Cup ride. As Haas’ current driver, Cole Custer, son of Haas team president Joe Custer, in 2023, after multiple seasons in Cup, went back down to the then Xfinity Series after struggling to repeat the promise he showed in his rookie Cup season.
He came back up to Cup in 2025 after winning his first career Xfinity title. And with how much Cole Custer has struggled in his Cup return. A return to the series where he’s won a championship and won 15 races in only five full-time seasons. And if that happens, you can’t find a much better replacement than JHN.
No.3 RCR!
It’s only been a few months since Kyle Busch, a legend who’s won over 200 races and 2 Cup Series championships. Passed away suddenly, affecting everyone in the NASCAR community heavily. But especially the people at his last team, RCR.
Not only do they have to deal with his unique presence and insight being gone, but they also have no way to prepare. But now they have to replace him. They have sponsors who paid for the full 2026 season with specific races scheduled, and the more cars you have, the more opportunities you have to gain money. With more sponsors you can sign, the more winnings you’ll earn. But also means spending more money on parts and potentially paying for more repairs.
Which is why you have to be very careful when selecting a new driver to sign, a decision that could prove to be fatal, as teams like Our Motorsports showed the racing world when they shut down after signing the wreck-prone Kris Wright. Austin Hill was the driver selected to replace Kyle Busch for the rest of 2026, but rumors linking them to the likes of Noah Gragson. Hill is struggling under the weight of such a massive responsibility, only achieving two top-twenties in a car that Rowdy scored two top-tens in early that year.
While it’d be unfair to blame him for failing such a tough and emotionally gut-wrenching task, racing is a performance-based industry, so if he can’t, they’ll find someone who does. And this year especially, they’re spoiled for choice! Not only are there many talented young drivers being developed in the lower series, including their own team, which has a brand-new lineup for 2027. And the many rumored open spots in Cup mean plenty of drivers will be looking for jobs this silly season.
JHN is only the most recent driver to be confirmed to be looking for a job for next year. But that makes them a match made in heaven. Drivers like Zilisch, Harrison Burton, and Custer show the risk teams could take in signing a driver with very little or no Next Gen experience. All of them have had their own struggles since moving up to Cup. Harrison Burton even spat back to the O’Reilly Series after three seasons in Cup.
JHN has raced three seasons in the Next Gen and has proven he can get the most out of a Next Gen car. While he’s been struggling this season, last year he earned two top-fives and eight top-tens, finishing 25th in points. Four spots in the points below the man he would be replacing, Kyle Busch. And not many drivers can claim to ever be so close to beating him in points. And even this year has shown flashes of brilliance. Finishing 4th after leading the most laps out of anyone at Pocono.
JHN is one of the more poetic choices to replace Kyle Busch as well. His career was revived in part because of Kyle Busch. JHN drove for his truck team, KBM, in 2021 and 2022. JHN even called Kyle Busch a close friend and mentor. And the speed he showed with Kyle Busch’s Truck team is why LMC hired him for the No.42. So who better to replace Kyle Busch than the driver he helped get into the Cup Series?
No.2 Trackhouse Racing!
Trackhouse Racing, after almost winning a championship in 2022, finds itself falling apart four years later. They’ve only won two races this year, both of which were SVG road course wins, which is still the least number of wins they’ve had aside from their first-ever season in 2021. Also, for the first time since 2021, Trackhouse has missed the post-season. All three drivers failed to make the sixteen-driver Chase.
And the young prodigy Connor Zilisch is not only well outside the top 30 in the points, which would be the lowest any Trackhouse driver has ever finished in points. He also signed with Trackhouse in the middle of his historic 10-win Xfinity Series season, has already signed with Hendrick, and will be going to the historic 48 after 2027. But all these disasters on the surface hide another disaster beneath. Which is the fact that Trackhouse could lose all their drivers by the end of this season.
Zilisch is already out, and both SVG and Ross Chastain, the driver who almost won Trackhouse a Cup Series title in 2022, are both out of contract by the end of 2026. They could re-sign, of course, but what if one of them doesn’t? Or, worst case, they lose all three of their drivers.
Then they’ll be hunting for whoever’s available for a ride. And of course JHN is now available for a ride. And there are many reasons they should be looking into JHN, many of which we’ve already gone over. But it’s more than his capability to get great results at Cup level and his time in the Next Gen that make him a great driver for Trackhouse in 2027 and beyond. But also the fact that he’s shown he can handle chaotic situations at teams- no problem!
The best example is his last ride, the LMC, No. 42. Before he was signed, the last driver of the No.42, Noah Gragson, was fired mid-season after failing to earn a single top-ten finish that year with the car, having missed a race for a concussion, and getting suspended for liking a meme about George Floyd on TikTok! Meanwhile, LMC was going through all kinds of ownership changes. Going from being owned by Richard Petty to being co-owned by Maury Gallagher in 2022, and then Richard Petty was no longer an owner, with another seven-time champion, Jimmie Johnson, co-owning the team now. Along with former PPI owner Cal Wells.
JHN came in the middle of all this insanity and matched the total number of top-tens he had in his rookie Cup season with three in 2024. Then went on to have a fantastic year in 2025. And it’s not the only time he’s handled such chaos with such grace.
He did so in 2019 with GMS in the Xfinity Series. He was hired to replace the son of GMS Racing owner Maury Gallagher, Spencer Gallagher. His 2018 season was ended early by NASCAR after they tested him and found illegal substances in his system immediately after his win at Talladega. At the same time, GMS was scaling back its Truck Series team from four full-time teams to only two.
He came into all that and still had a great year. Having six top-fives and nineteen top-tens, earning him a seventh-place finish in the final standings. The highest-ever points finish a GMS car has ever had in the Xfinity Series.
You can even take this as far back as the start of his NASCAR career. Entering Truck races with his family team, NEMCO, entering the Truck Series for the first time since 1995. Transitioning from being a start-and-park team in both the Cup and Nationwide Series to being a competitive Truck team. Winning many of their races with JHN in chaotic fashion. Like his fuel-mileage win at Chicagoland Speedway. Or his famous win at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, which showed everyone in NASCAR he’s willing to do anything. An attitude Trackhouse we know and love!
And even if Chastain and SVG both return, JHN could still be a very good option to replace Zilisch in 2028. After all, JHN is no stranger to returning to the lower series. So I’m sure he’s willing to do a year at JRM or Spire, or maybe even an MHR in O’Reilly or Trucks. Especially a ride that, if Trackhouse manages to get back on its feet and gets anywhere close to its best. Would be provided with cars that contend for weeks semi-regularly. Which would be a first in JHN’s Cup career.
No.1 Kaulig Racing!
Another team going through a lot of chaos in 2026 is Kaulig. Last year, they made the incredibly risky move of switching from Chevy to a manufacturer that was making its return to NASCAR: Dodge/RAM. A move that included shutting down their Xfinity team, the team that launched them into Cup to begin with. And opening a Truck team with five different full-time entries.
And they’re certainly struggling with the transition in some ways. All four of their eligible trucks missed the Truck Series Chase. And none of their five trucks achieved a single top-five finish throughout the regular season. Their Cup team has been the same old, too. With AJ Allmendinger top-25 in the standings and has all the team’s top-fives and tens so far this season. Their other driver, Ty Dillon, is lagging, sitting 33rd in the standings.
Ty Dillon is the grandson of Richard Childress, the owner of the aforementioned RCR. The Chevy team provides Kaulig with its engines through its engine program. So, with the team cutting all ties with Chevy, it gives them less reason to keep Ty Dillon. And in terms of results, in almost two full seasons with Kaulig, he’s only had a single top-ten finish in Atlanta in 2025. And unless he has the hottest streak of his career would’ve failed to finish top 30 in points both seasons. And of course, JHN beat him in points in 2025 and is ahead of him in points in 2026.
So JHN would be an objective upgrade, but it’ll be a chance for Kaulig to get more funding. Something that would help their Cup program immensely and potentially even their brand-new Truck program. Mayer, a leading distributor of electrical products and solutions, has already signed on to be the primary sponsor for JHN’s 2027 season. As announced on June 16th.
And Kaulig, like any race team, will appreciate any sponsor they can come across. There’s also the potential for more manufacturer support from Dodge, which could make Kaulig the most competitive ride he’s ever had in Cup. Even with rumors that RFK and RCR might come to Dodge, getting in the door first could prove to be valuable, as they’re the first team to have a relationship with the returning manufacturer. Making this a potential win for both sides. Thanks a bunch for reading!