Dale Earnhardt Jr. will return to the racing track with much fanfare.
The Hampton Heat was founded in 2008 and has evolved into a marquee race for Late Model Stock Cars.
“Looking forward to running the Hampton Heat at Langley Speedway,” Earnhardt Jr. wrote. “See ya there.”
Earnhardt Jr., 49, formally retired from racing in 2017 but has made scattered appearances at races since then. On April 13, he competed in the CARS Tour event at New River All-American Speedway in Jacksonville, North Carolina, and finished in 14th place.
“I’m a huge fan of the CARS Tour and local short-track racing,” Earnhardt said before the race. “The competition, the tracks, and the drivers are some of the best around. These regional series are vital to the quality of racing you see at the top level—it’s the heartbeat of motorsports in North America.”
Earnhardt Jr. also raced in the Icebreaker at Florence Motor Speedway in February and managed a fourth-place finish. Following the closure of Myrtle Beach Speedway in 2020, many of that track’s events moved to Florence Motor Speedway.
“You so badly want to win races but it’s such a tough crowd and when you don’t do it every week, that really shows up in qualifying,” Earnhardt Jr. said after the race. “I don’t know what I’m doing wrong or need to do differently. Like anything else, you just need to do it more to be good at it.
“To come here and run 3–4 weeks in a single week, you can’t expect to win a lot of races against all the guys who do this every week.”
In April 2017, Earnhardt Jr. confirmed he was retiring from racing at the end of that NASCAR season at age 42. He had missed half of the NASCAR season the prior year because of a concussion. It was his second concussion in four years. The injury prompted concerns about his overall health as a driver after he experienced nausea, double vision, anxiety, and other symptoms from the concussions.
He later became an advocate for research on sports-related brain injuries.
Earnhardt Jr., who made his first career Cup Series start on May 30, 1999, at Charlotte Motor Speedway, is the son of the NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt, who was killed in a crash at the Daytona 500 in 2001 at age 49. The elder Earnhardt was a Hall-of-Fame driver who won seven titles and was known as “The Intimidator” because of his prowess on the track.
Earnhardt’s grandfather, Ralph, ran 51 races on the NASCAR circuit.
The younger Earnhardt followed in his father’s footsteps and also had a stellar career with 26 NASCAR Cup victories, including two wins at the Daytona over 18 seasons of racing. In addition, Earnhardt Jr. received the Most Popular Driver award 14 consecutive times.
“Personally, there were two choices,” Earnhardt said shortly after his retirement announcement. “Basically, the sport either retires you or you retire on your own. I came close to having the sport retire me over the course of last season. I was thankful and still am thankful today that I’m able to be healthy and continue to compete. ... It’s been amazing.”
Earnhardt Jr. began racing for Hendrick Motorsports in 2008 after a contentious split with Dale Earnhardt Inc., the team founded by his father. Ernhardt Jr. was unhappy with the direction of Dale Earnhardt Inc. under the direction of his stepmother following the death of his father.
Hendrick Motorsports welcomed Earnhardty Jr. with open arms and the team has earned a record 14 car owner championships in NASCAR’s premier division since 1984. Hendrick has four full-time Chevrolet teams on the NASCAR Cup Series circuit with drivers Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, William Byron, and Alex Bowman.
After he retired from racing, Earnhardt Jr. moved to the broadcast booth for NBC, TNT, and Amazon. He became a popular pundit for NASCAR because of his experience as a driver.
Earnhardt Jr. also owns JR Motorsports, which tours nationally in the NASCAR Xfinity Series with four full-time entries and has three championships in 2014, 2017, and 2018 and 58 series victories. The company also maintains a distinction as the only NXS team to produce rookie champions, accomplishing the feat with Chase Elliott (2014), William Byron (2017), and Tyler Reddick (2018).
