In the seven years since his full-time driving retirement, Dale Earnhardt Jr. has made at least one NASCAR Xfinity Series start a year as part of a partnership with Unilever-Hellmann’s.
The agreement: Earnhardt races in the Hellmann’s colors at one southeastern track of his choosing and Unilever brands sponsor several races a year across all four full-time cars. There’s also lighthearted commercial opportunities like this. Earnhardt still represents Unilever but the partnership doesn’t require Earnhardt to make one start next year.
So, as it stands, he isn’t but that doesn’t mean he won’t, after challenging for a top-5 in a chaotic one-off appearance at Bristol Motor Speedway on Friday night.
“Everybody was like, ‘Is this your last one?’ I don’t have any plans,” Earnhardt Jr. said on the latest episode of his Dale Jr Download podcast. “I like it that way. If I want to run one, I will. If I don’t, I won’t.
“Right now, there’s nothing on the schedule for next year, but knowing me, I’m probably going to go, ‘Man, I missed running.’ When 2025’s over-with — actually, when I’m done broadcasting, and (Amazon and Turner) finishes out the year, I’ll probably be sitting there going, ‘I should’ve ran a race. I should’ve ran one of these. Darn it.’ Then, I’ll probably go to Kelly (sister) and LW (Miller, brother-in-law) and say, ‘Hey, let’s find one for 2026,’ and I’ll get nervous all over again.”
So even though Earnhardt suggested before that Xfinity Series start last weekend, he is quick to remind fans that he still plans on racing his Late Model Stock Car across the Carolinas and Virginias next year, something he has done the past several seasons.
But he also doesn’t believe he has run his last NASCAR Xfinity Series race either.
“I’m sure I’m not done,” Earnhardt said. “I want people to remember, I’m racing my Late Model. Amy and I sit down at the start of the year and we put the schedule in front of us, and I go, ‘Amy, I want to run this many Late Model Stock races, and here’s a bunch of races that are interesting to me,’ and we’ll look at what the family has going on, what my work schedule is. Everything else is a priority. Racing, driving a race car, while I love it, is way down on the list. It is. There’s so many other things now in my life that insist on being prioritized above that and must be.”
At the same time, if the right sponsorship package for JR Motorsports is presented to Earnhardt, Earnhardt-Miller and Miller, the two-time Daytona 500 winner says he would entertain it even to run a race next year too.
“So, we take racing and try to fit it into the puzzle that’s built. … If I’m prioritizing driving, I’m going to prioritize driving my Late Model over driving that Xfinity car, for me,” Earnhardt said. “That’s a selfish thing, whatever, but I want to drive that thing more.
“If giving up an Xfinity race gets me another Late Model race, I’m going to do that, if I can. But if somebody walked in here tomorrow, the phone rang and somebody said, ‘Hey, we want Dale to drive an Xfinity race, and we’ll sponsor one of the other four cars for a package deal, 5-10 races,’ we’re doing that. We’re doing that.
“That’s going to check the box, and I’m back at the race track in the Xfinity car. But until that happens, I’m going to mess with this late-model stock car.”