Dale Earnhardt Jr. quietly broke NASCAR streak – – Sports News
Dale Earnhardt Jr. noticed his virtually three-decade streak come to an finish in 2025.
Since making his NASCAR debut in 1996, Earnhardt has raced in at the least one NASCAR race even after he retired from full-time racing in 2017. That mentioned, the NASCAR legend would compete within the Xfinity Series, preserving his streak of races competed in alive — however 2025 marked a change.
In 2024, Earnhardt raced at Bristol, ending within the prime 10 within the Xfinity race. However, 2025 introduced a new alternative for Earnhardt, who not too long ago shared that he was nervous about his group returning to the Daytona 500 in 2026.
For the primary time because the mid-Nineties, Earnhardt didn’t compete in NASCAR races at any degree. Although the legend no longer runs full-time, he typically makes time to race at the least as soon as a 12 months.
Though he didn’t announce he had absolutely retired from racing altogether, the 51-12 months-outdated has loved success on the helm of JR Motorsports. Mentoring rising star Connor Zilisch, Earnhardt and JR Motorsports got here one race away from successful the Xfinity Series championship.
That mentioned, the NASCAR legend defined how he was feeling the nerves forward of JR Motorsports’ extremely anticipated return to the Daytona 500. In late November, Earnhardt’s group introduced they might be working within the historic race, with Justin Allgaier piloting a Traveller Whiskey-sponsored car.
In a latest episode of the Dale Jr. Download, Earnhardt defined what was going by his thoughts as he and his group ready for the race. “I’m nervous because we’re going to have a new body,” he mentioned.
“Anytime a manufacturer gets a new body, they don’t go to Daytona and perform better. You’re figuring out kind of what makes that body perform at a track like that. I don’t know details, I just shoot it straight. Every time a manufacturer changes the body, they’re trying their best in every way, when a new body is coming in, to make their cars more competitive at the tracks that we race the most.
“They’re always trying to put a character line in there or fudge the quarter panel, or whatever the nose in such a way they’re working with the teams to go, ‘Hey man, this is what we need, this would make us better. Well, let’s see if we can get it passed through. Will NASCAR accept it?’
“NASCAR will run it through some tests and aero and stuff like that to make sure it’s not like this massive advantage comparable to the other manufacturers.” What’s more, Kelley Earnhardt, the legend’s sister and co-proprietor of JR Motorsports, defined she and Earnhardt are all the time searching for alternatives to probably race within the Cup Series.
“Would we like to be Cup racing? We certainly would,” she said to SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “It’s something from a legacy standpoint, and everything that we built, I think it would be really cool for us to experience, but the right opportunity just hasn’t come forward yet.”
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