NASCAR
01 Feb 2019
Credit: Robert Laberge/Getty Images/NASCAR Media
Dale Earnhardt Jr. will come out of retirement once again this season when he competes in the Darlington Xfinity race later this season.
The two-time Daytona 500 winner retired from full-time competition at the end of 2017, and has since gone on to forge a successful broadcasting career with NBC alongside continuing to run his championship-winning JR Motorsports team.
The revelation came after a fan asked Earnhardt Jr. on Twitter whether there would be a chance that he would race at Daytona or Charlotte this season.
“Come to Darlington Raceway this year,” he replied. “I’m running the Xfinity series race.”
Come to @TooToughToTame this year. I’m running the @XfinityRacing race.
— Dale Earnhardt Jr. (@DaleJr) February 1, 2019
Last season he made one start in the Xfinity series, finishing fourth in the second Richmond race. Earnhardt Jr. qualified second, led the most laps (96 out of 250) and won the second stage of the race.
Earnhardt Jr. quit full-time racing a year after he was forced to miss half of the 2016 due to concussion symptoms. One fan voiced their concern over his return to the cockpit, but the former Hendrick driver assured his nearly two and a half million Twitter followers that he was healthy to drive. He also revealed that he would be making just ‘a couple’ more race starts, as per a contractual agreement with Hellmans, before hanging up his helmet for good.
“[I] Understand your concern,” he said. “Remember I completed an entire season of Cup since the last injury.”
“Doctors are confident I can compete,” Earnhardt Jr. added. “I have just a couple events left to complete contract obligations that were agreed to a couple years ago. Then no more.”
Earnhardt Jr. has also previously expressed an interest in running a Truck series race at Martinsville with former team mate Jeff Gordon, who retired from full-time racing in 2015, but subbed for Earnhardt Jr. during his concussion layoff in 2016.
“I’ve always loved Martinsville, and the truck race at Martinsville would probably be the one that I would be most excited about running, if I was to run a truck,” he told USA Today last year. “[I’ve got] No plans to run a truck, but I wouldn’t mind running a truck race once, just to say, ‘Hey, I know what a truck drives like.'”
“Martinsville, man, that’s where it’s at. Jeff Gordon loves Martinsville, so I know he’d be in for that,” Earnhardt Jr. said.
