Dale Earnhardt Jr. was just spit balling, and it’s far from a formal announcement, but he does have a degree of FOMO (fear of missing out) on not running the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Bristol this weekend.
While answering questions on the latest episode of the Dale Jr. Download podcast, Earnhardt said he could see himself continuing to make one-off appearances in the lower national levels for many years to come.
“I should run one or two more,” said Earnhardt, who has not made a start this season after making at least one appearance in the Xfinity Series every year since his retirement from Cup in 2017. “But, I don’t know if and when I’ll do that.
“North Wilkesboro, I don’t really want to run Wilkesboro with the new pavement but there’s a chance by the time I’m 55-to-58 years old that maybe that pavement is kind of worn out a little bit and I can just hop on out there and do it.”
58?! He’s 50 currently.
“I don’t have any problem with getting in my Xfinity car in eight years and running a one-off,” he said. “What the hell? Why the hell not? I’d run Bristol again. I’d run Wilkesboro once the pavement wears out. If the Nashville (Fairgrounds) thing happens, I’d probably contemplate going and running that one as well.”
Earnhardt intends to race his Late Model Stock for at least another decade and says he still wants to make a Craftsman Truck Series start if it checks all the boxes.
“But it has to be fun for me and I just can’t figure out where to run one that would be fun for me, right,” Earnhardt said. “I have certain things that I think are fun. I like Martinsville but I don’t like the racing there. It’s a little short in that you don’t even get into the bad side of the tire … to where the tire’s messing around.
“I went to run an Xfinity race at Martinsville and its miserable because of the tire … the stages are too short. You don’t get to take advantage of being better at driving a race car because of the tire, once your tire starts to fail, and you lose the rear drive and different things … the brakes get mad and the tires blow up the air pressure.
“Like, if you’re smart, you can do good things early in the run that’ll make your car really great at lap 80 and 100, which is so much fun but they never get to that point. They never do. The stage is over and there ain’t enough power too in the Xfinity cars at Martinsville.
“You stand in the gas and it’s like stepping in a bucket of water.”
But again, don’t hold him to it, because he’s just ‘shooting the crap’ on his podcast.
“Maybe I’ll run that Truck race at 58-years-old at Wilkesboro. Don’t hold me to it, people.”
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