Before Saturday, Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s last NASCAR race was in August. And — despite entering Saturday’s second-tier XFINITY Series with no practice and no qualifying because of NASCAR’s COVID-19 rules — he finished fifth in the Hooters 250 at Homestead-Miami Speedway while racing for his own team, JR Motorsports.
It’s his third straight top-5 finish in his lone annual race, and he’s finished in the top 10 in eight of his last nine XFINITY races. Not too shabby for a 45-year-old driver who hadn’t raced in more than eight months.
But after the race, Earnhardt hinted that this could possibly be his last race, telling FOX Sports: “My time’s running out.”
On a post-race Zoom press conference, Dale Jr. expanded on that thought. When asked if competing once a year makes him want to race more frequently, the NBC Sports broadcaster said he’s definitely comfortable with only one XFINITY race a year.
But he also acknowledged the uncertainty of his future and said this could possibly be it for him:
“I think right now, it’s just going to stay the same. I don’t want to do any more, that’s for sure. I can say that with confidence. I don’t know how many more of these I’ll do. This might be the last one. And this ain’t no tease or anything like that. I’m not trying to be annoying about that. It’s a lot of a commitment, and I just, I don’t know.
“I don’t know if it’s getting to the point where I’ve gotta decide whether I’m helping things or I’m not helping the team. How can I help the team in other ways? I don’t know. I really enjoy it. I really do. But I think there’s gotta be a point to where I decide to make the change to broadcasting entirely, and with that said though, being in the car today, I certainly learned a ton that’s going to help me in the booth. I’ve just gotta think about it, you know? I certainly don’t want to run more. One is plenty.”
🤯🤯🤯🤯
Those last two laps!
RETWEET to congratulate @HBurtonRacing! pic.twitter.com/DrBRyau6SA
— NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) June 13, 2020
Rookie driver Harrison Burton — the son of Jeff Burton, one of Earnhardt’s broadcast partners at NBC Sports — won the race. Austin Cindric, Noag Gragson and Anthony Alfredo rounded out the four drivers who finished ahead of Dale Jr.
It was his third one-off XFINITY Series race since he retired from the NASCAR Cup Series at the end of the 2017 season, which also concluded at Homestead. In 2018 at Richmond Raceway, Earnhardt finished fourth in the No. 88 Chevrolet, and last season at Darlington Raceway, he finished fifth in the No. 8 car.
After the race in an interview with FOX Sports on pit road, Earnhardt described himself as “rusty.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr. claims his 70th career NASCAR Xfinity top 5 finish. pic.twitter.com/mzbkY9UiJT
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) June 13, 2020
Elaborating on his emotions, he also said during his Zoom call with reporters that he was really nervous and “a little difficult to be around the last few days” because of his anxiety. He explained:
“I was really, really nervous. I started to think to myself, ‘How can it be possible for somebody to race in any of the top-3 series without having any laps and not having driven a car in a year?’ I know I got some laps, and I’ve been around for a while. I was real nervous! I really was because I thought I knew kind of what the drivers mindset might be in these types of situations over the last several weeks with no laps, no practice, just a lot of pressure.
“But I really underestimated. It’s harder than I thought. It’s more anxiety than I would have imagined, and so I was a little difficult to be around the last couple days, just having the anxiety of it. …
“But I worked myself up for the last 72 hours, and we run better than I thought we would. When that race started, we didn’t have great speed. The car wasn’t turning really well. But as we would run, we just would pass ’em! I don’t know that the car drove better as the race went on, but we just could hang in there and bank some time on older tires.”
After starting the Hooters 250 in 12th, Earnhardt quickly moved his way into the top-10 and raced there for most of the day. He led only four laps, but he was solidly among the top-5 drivers and in contention for the lead throughout the second half of the race.
CHECKERED FLAG – P5
"That was fun. best pit crew on pit road all day long."
Dale Jr. brings the @Hellmanns ride home at @HomesteadMiami fifth. Great run. #PR pic.twitter.com/LQECgHXUJ4
— Dale Earnhardt Jr. (@DaleJr) June 13, 2020
Coming off a late caution, Earnhardt restarted third with two laps to go but fell to the top-5 bubble as Burton, Cindric and Gragson battled for the win on the final laps around the 1.5-mile track.
Immediately after the race, Earnhardt spoke to FOX Sports on pit road and shrugged off the idea of jumping in one of his team’s backup cars and competing in Sunday’s XFINITY race. He added:
“That’s a lot of fun. But this is the top, elite form of motor sports in my mind next to Cup, and it’s not easy to get out there and compete with them boys. They’re so, so good and race so hard, and my time’s running out.”
In the Cup Series, the southern Florida track hosted Earnhardt’s final race. But in the XFINITY Series, Junior hadn’t competed at Homestead since 2008. In five previous starts between 1997 and 2008, Earnhardt earned one top-five and three top-10 finishes, with his best being second in 1999.
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