Its official fan favorite, Dale Earnhardt Jr., will return to NASCAR in 2025 to compete in a handful of small-scale races. Earnhardt made his initial announcement through Instagram on August 29, igniting a shockwave of reactions from his 1 million followers. Fans were baffled, trying to figure out if the news was too good to be true, but now that it is confirmed, excitement is the keyword. Many are eager to see Junior, as he’s affectionately known, get behind the wheel for the first time since his 2017 retirement.
Since stepping away from racing, he’s appeared on NBC Sports as a race analyst and owns and operates J.R. Motorsports. JR Motorsports is home to Xfinity drivers Smith, Mayer, Allgaier, Jones, Honeycutt, Kvapil, and Lapradd. Under Earnhardt’s direction, the team has secured 81 wins and three Xfinity Series championships. 50-year-old Earnhardt also has two victories in the Xfinity Series and 26 Cup wins, but he’s eager to add more, and 2025 will give him room to do that.
Where and Why Dale Earnhardt Jr. Plans to Race
Now that the dust has settled surrounding his return, Dale Earnhardt Jr. can finally focus on his race schedule. Fans have been eager ever since the August announcement, speculating on the race he’ll run to kick off his comeback. It was a toss-up for the 26-time champion, but it wasn’t a shock when he decided on Florence Motorspeedway in South Carolina. Earnhardt is no stranger to the track and recently participated in a soft run there in November.
During this run, the NASCAR icon resurrected the classic red and black Budweiser paint scheme and No. 08 for the first time since leaving Dale Earnhardt Inc. in 2007. Post-2007, Junior changed to the No. 88 once it was announced on June 13, 2007, that he’d be joining Hendrick Motorsports. Stepmother Teresa Earnhardt, who acquired DEI after his father’s passing in 2001, didn’t release the No. 8 trademark to him, so he could not carry it to Hendrick, but that would soon change.
On June 3, 2024, when Teresa officially decided not to renew the No.08 trademark, Dale Earnhardt Jr. jumped at the opportunity to acquire it. However, for Junior, it’s never been about having the number. It brings back memories of his NASCAR start with his father, which seems to have kickstarted his recent run in Florence. Though Florence was unsuccessful and the No. 8 succumbed to mechanical issues, leaving him unable to finish the race, he’s looking ahead to 2025.
Will More Races be Added In the Future?
At this point, the pressing question on everyone’s minds is whether Dale Earnhardt Jr. will be adding more races other than the South Carolina 400. According to NASCAR insiders, Earnhardt will not run on a full-time schedule but will run three additional races. The races will occur in April, August, and October, but exact dates, times, and venues are yet to be determined. Even so, the No. 08 will feature fan-favorite paint schemes in the four races, including Bass Pro Shops, Sundrop, and the ever-popular Budweiser red. These nostalgic schemes give diehard Dale Jr. followers something to be excited about, yet it’s hard to decipher if he’ll add more races.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. has a commitment as a NASCAR broadcaster for Amazon Prime and TNT for a handful of Cup Series events, making adding more races difficult. He’s slated to cover some of NASCAR’s most notable events, like the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte in May and the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis in July. Of course, fans will speculate that the two-time Daytona 500 winner and son of Dale Earnhardt Sr. will race again. It’s only natural, but Junior has a very different outlook.
The No. 8 driver touts himself as a guy who loves racing, and it shows with his choices in specific tracks like Cordele and Anderson Motorspeedways. In fact, these are two of the most talked about smaller-scale tracks he has an eye on for 2025. Dale Earnhardt Jr. sees racing at this level as more personal because not only will he get to race, but he also gets to interact with his fans one-on-one. It’s like Dale Earnhardt Jr. said himself, “I’ll see ya’ll in August,” a day that has been dreamt of since his initial retirement in 2017, so see him we shall.
Final Thoughts
Though diehard Dale Earnhardt Jr. fans feel they have to pinch themselves because they’re dreaming, he’s really returning in 2025. Many seemed to assume he’d remain in retirement, but he couldn’t withstand the urge to stay out of a race car. In 2025, as he steps back into the classic No. 08, Earnhardt hopes to resurface the champion within and win a race or two. Undoubtedly, he can achieve that with his successful track record and the urge to continue his legacy, so can he reign supreme once again? Many fans seem to think so, but is the speculation too far off the rails?
