diff --git a/dev/tasks/macros.jinja b/dev/tasks/macros.jinja
index 4edcfad3aec..8e9a41b46b7 100644
--- a/dev/tasks/macros.jinja
+++ b/dev/tasks/macros.jinja
@@ -277,8 +277,6 @@ env:
   {# use filter to cast to string and convert to lowercase to match yaml boolean #}
   {% set is_fork = (not is_upstream_b)|lower %}
 
-{% set r_release = {"ver": "4.2", "rt" : "42"} %}
-{% set r_oldrel = {"ver": "4.1", "rt" : "40"} %}
 
 {%- macro github_set_env(env) -%}
   {% if env is defined %}
diff --git a/dev/tasks/r/github.linux.arrow.version.back.compat.yml b/dev/tasks/r/github.linux.arrow.version.back.compat.yml
index 7c2695f9563..41a4274df3d 100644
--- a/dev/tasks/r/github.linux.arrow.version.back.compat.yml
+++ b/dev/tasks/r/github.linux.arrow.version.back.compat.yml
@@ -90,10 +90,8 @@ jobs:
         - { old_arrow_version: '10.0.1', r: '4.2' }
         - { old_arrow_version: '9.0.0', r: '4.2' }
         - { old_arrow_version: '8.0.0', r: '4.2' }
-        - { old_arrow_version: '7.0.0', r: '4.1' }
-        - { old_arrow_version: '6.0.1', r: '4.1' }
-        - { old_arrow_version: '5.0.0', r: '4.1' }
-        - { old_arrow_version: '4.0.0', r: '4.1' }
+        - { old_arrow_version: '7.0.0', r: '4.2' }
+        - { old_arrow_version: '6.0.1', r: '4.2' }
     env:
       ARROW_R_DEV: "TRUE"
       OLD_ARROW_VERSION: {{ '${{ matrix.config.old_arrow_version }}' }}
diff --git a/dev/tasks/r/github.linux.versions.yml b/dev/tasks/r/github.linux.versions.yml
index 612d84b185f..644494bfbae 100644
--- a/dev/tasks/r/github.linux.versions.yml
+++ b/dev/tasks/r/github.linux.versions.yml
@@ -30,7 +30,6 @@ jobs:
         r_version:
           # We test devel, release, and oldrel in regular CI.
           # This is for older versions
-          - "4.1"
           - "4.2"
           - "4.3"
           - "4.4"
diff --git a/r/DESCRIPTION b/r/DESCRIPTION
index c76dfc5572f..f9aa93d474b 100644
--- a/r/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/r/DESCRIPTION
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ Description: 'Apache' 'Arrow' <https://arrow.apache.org/> is a cross-language
     language-independent columnar memory format for flat and hierarchical data,
     organized for efficient analytic operations on modern hardware. This
     package provides an interface to the 'Arrow C++' library.
-Depends: R (>= 4.1)
+Depends: R (>= 4.2)
 License: Apache License (>= 2.0)
 URL: https://github.com/apache/arrow/, https://arrow.apache.org/docs/r/
 BugReports: https://github.com/apache/arrow/issues