Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kasey Kahne will each drive the No. 88 in two Xfinity Series races this season, JR Motorsports announced Thursday.
Earnhardt, the team’s owner, will drive the “All-Star Car” at Bristol Motor Speedway (Aug. 18) and Richmond International Raceway (Sept. 8). Kahne will be in the car at Daytona International Speedway (Feb. 25) and Talladega Superpeedway (May 6).
The No. 88 car is the fifth Xfinity entry for JR Motorsports. It joins the four full-time rides of Elliott Sadler, Justin Allgaier, Michael Annett and William Byron.
Earnhardt drove the No. 88 in two Xfinity races last season, including at Richmond where he won his first Xfinity race since 2010. It was his first victory in a car he owned.
Kahne has 24 Xfinity starts and one win with JR Motorsports (Daytona, 2014).
Sponsorship for Earnhardt’s race will be announced later. Kahne will be sponsored by Hellmann’s at Daytona and Armour at Talladega.
Scott Radel, director of engineering at JRM, will be the team’s crew chief in all four races.
“I am looking forward to the opportunity to be atop the pit box for these four races, with Dale and Kasey behind the wheel,” said Radel in a press release. “JRM has had tremendous success over the past three seasons, and the ability to field a fifth entry is one that will help continue building on that momentum in 2017.”