{"id":240676,"date":"2025-09-20T05:13:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-20T05:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/240676\/"},"modified":"2025-09-20T05:13:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T05:13:08","slug":"dale-earnhardt-jr-shares-where-he-could-return-to-racing-in-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/240676\/","title":{"rendered":"Dale Earnhardt Jr. Shares Where He Could Return to Racing in the Future"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-type=\"content\" data-variant=\"p\" id=\"article-content-block-1\" class=\"data-event\">Dale Earnhardt Jr. brought his glittering NASCAR career to an end in 2017 but kept the spark alive with one-off appearances in the Xfinity Series each year. Sadly, it has been over a year since he last took to the wheel, and the signs suggest that he has finally decided to retire full-time. That said, there is still a \u201cprobably\u201d attached to it.<\/p>\n<p data-type=\"content\" data-variant=\"p\" id=\"article-content-block-2\" class=\"data-event\">Earnhardt Jr.\u2019s last race was at Bristol Motor Speedway on September 20, 2024. On his podcast the same year, he admitted to the possibility of it marking his final Xfinity outing.<\/p>\n<p data-type=\"content\" data-variant=\"p\" id=\"article-content-block-3\" class=\"data-event\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/thesportsrush.com\/tag\/dale-earnhardt-jr\/\" data-utm_source=\"article\" data-utm_medium=\"content\" data-utm_campaign=\"link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Junior<\/a> <\/strong>was pretty sure that was it, though he planned to keep running his late model \u201cfor a little while.\u201d He also revealed he had <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/thesportsrush.com\/nascar-news-i-have-no-plans-to-come-back-dale-earnhardt-jr-gives-update-on-bristol-plans\/\" data-utm_source=\"article\" data-utm_medium=\"content\" data-utm_campaign=\"link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">no plans to return to the Xfinity grid in 2025<\/a><\/strong>, though 2026 remained on the table.<\/p>\n<p data-type=\"content\" data-variant=\"p\" id=\"article-content-block-4\" class=\"data-event\">In the NASCAR legend\u2019s words, he would be foolish to rule it out entirely, because he knows the itch to race never fully fades, and if a run could benefit his team, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/thesportsrush.com\/tag\/jr-motorsports\/\" data-utm_source=\"article\" data-utm_medium=\"content\" data-utm_campaign=\"link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">JR Motorsports<\/a><\/strong>, he\u2019d be the first to sign up.<\/p>\n<p data-type=\"content\" data-variant=\"p\" id=\"article-content-block-5\" class=\"data-event\">In his latest podcast, Dale Jr. almost cemented those thoughts by sketching out a shortlist of tracks where he might want to return. \u201cI probably should run one or two more, but I don\u2019t know if and when I\u2019ll do that,\u201d he <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=lJwNOrTD-M0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-utm_source=\"article\" data-utm_medium=\"content\" data-utm_campaign=\"link\">began<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p data-type=\"content\" data-variant=\"p\" id=\"article-content-block-6\" class=\"data-event\">\u201cI don\u2019t really want to run Wilkesboro with a new pavement, but there\u2019s a chance that by the time I\u2019m 55 or 58 years old, maybe that payment\u2019s kind of worn out a little bit, and I just hop out there and do it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-type=\"content\" data-variant=\"p\" id=\"article-content-block-7\" class=\"data-event\">\u201cI don\u2019t have any problem with getting in my Xfinity car in eight years and running a one-off\u2026 I\u2019d run Bristol again. I\u2019d run Wilkesboro once the pavement wears out. If they ever did go to Nashville, I\u2019d probably contemplate going and running that one as well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-type=\"content\" data-variant=\"p\" id=\"article-content-block-8\" class=\"data-event\">Junior also entertained the idea of tackling a Truck Series race, but confessed he couldn\u2019t settle on the right venue. Martinsville, he stated, fits his style, but he dislikes how the racing plays out there. In his view, the races are too short, never forcing drivers to truly wrestle with tire falloff.<\/p>\n<p data-type=\"content\" data-variant=\"p\" id=\"article-content-block-9\" class=\"data-event\">Even so, Earnhardt Jr. acknowledged he\u2019d enjoy running the Xfinity race at Martinsville, despite its own shortcomings. \u201cIt is miserable because the stages are too short,\u201d he explained, remarking that drivers never reach the point where skill behind the wheel takes over.<\/p>\n<p data-type=\"content\" data-variant=\"p\" id=\"article-content-block-10\" class=\"data-event\">Instead, once the tires lose grip and rear drive, the brakes overheat, the tires balloon with air pressure, and the entire balance falls apart. So, while Dale Jr. has not confirmed anything yet, he might return to Xfinity in 2026. Considering how big a draw he is, one can only hope he does.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dale Earnhardt Jr. brought his glittering NASCAR career to an end in 2017 but kept the spark alive&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":240677,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[4727,1406,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-240676","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-dale-earnhardt-jr","9":"tag-nascar","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115234917856497590","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}