After a long time, the #8 has been reunited with Dale Earnhardt Jr. This was after a lengthy legal battle with his stepmother, Teresa Earnhardt, who previously held the rights. However, she recently surrendered the rights to Dale Jr and his sister Kelley Earnhardt-Miller. Not too long afterwards, former long-time sponsor Budweiser decided to come back and reunite with him as well.

Back in November 2024, the 2-time Daytona 500 winner competed in a late model race at the Florence Motor Speedway. What was special about that particular race was that it would be the first time the Budweiser #8 would be seen once again in its former glory. During the race weekend, qualifying was a bit rough for the former NASCAR driver. However, Jr. showed some fairly strong race pace, before a mechanical issue forced him out of the race.

Recently, the ex-NASCAR driver and Hall of Famer spoke about the future of the #8 Budweiser union. While there was an opportunity where the creative team could’ve gone overboard with the design aspect, they paid homage to the original style. He also dropped an important update on the Bud 8 car along with the possibility of seeing the iconic scheme in future events.

How did Dale Earnhardt Jr. go about facilitating the reunion?

“Yeah, I think so. You know, there are multiple layers to this in that there is my vision, and what I would like to do. Then there is (sister) Kelley (Earnhardt-Miller), and multiple layers of creative and business people, and these visions all have to come together for the final product. Our creative guy, Ryan Williams, is really into ’80s and ’90s NASCAR, and I told him that I trusted him to just have fun with it. I left the shirts and hats, stuff like that, to him. I felt very strongly about having a diecast, so I’m grateful that Lionel made us a mold not only for this car but for Late Model racers across the country to get cars made.” Dale Jr. said in an interview with AthlonSports.

To tell the truth, the ex-Hendrick Motorsports driver wanted to maintain his vision. What helped the situation was that he, his sister and everyone involved in the project were all on the same page. However, Dale Jr had a lot of faith in his team to pull it off and everyone worked hard to make the triumphant reunion happen. While the few lucky ones were able to enjoy the Bud 8 car on the racetrack, others grabbed the merchandise which was selling like hotcakes.

The merch included $250 worth of autographed replica helmets, $140 autographed diecast toys, $27 for hats, and $5 for Koozies. Within just the first few days JRM sold mid-six figures worth of merchandise. This only goes to show Jr.’s popular appeal among the racing community despite calling it quits back in 2017. Well, the good news is that the Bud 8 car might return for a few more races, allowing fans to reminisce about Jr.’s gold old days at DEI.

“Well, kind of … we have at least one more race and I already have an idea for something different I want to do next year. It just comes down to how much they (Budweiser) want to do. My goal was to impress the Bud guys with this race because it’s an entirely new company compared to when we raced before – (there’s) all new people to meet but it was impressive how much they knew and how excited they were to do it,” Jr. added.

During the interview, Jr. also opened up about his new role as a broadcaster with Amazon Prime Video for the 2025 season. This is indeed a positive change for NASCAR fans as he wasn’t a part of the NBC coverage last year as they didn’t extend his contract for another year.

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Dale Jr. looking to make new friends

There will be a total of 10 Cup Series races that will see Dale Jr. call the Cup Series race this season. The booth for the Prime Video and TNT broadcast is going to be the same. Dale Jr. will reunite with Steve Letarte but will have to build chemistry with Adam Alexander. “I’m at a point in my life where building personal relationships and becoming friends is important. I need to work with someone I can trust, who you can share things going on in your life with and get advice from. And I expect I’ll have that with Adam,” Jr. explained.

Alexander joins Prime and TNT after a 19-year stint with FOX Sports as a play-by-play announcer for multiple races. His duties also included pit reporting and studio host for FOX. The 51-year-old is a veteran and his experience as a broadcaster stretches far beyond the boundaries of NASCAR. This is one of the reasons, Prime Video roped him as a part of the man roster.

And it looks like Jr. and Alexander have already started to develop a bond. “So, I knew he was a good guy because when I started broadcasting, everyone on the NBC side was very nice and supportive, but the only person outside of that bubble that regularly texted me was Adam. He was like, ‘hey man, I think you’re doing great.’ There was no incentive for him to do that.” 

Dale Jr. has multiple projects lined up for the 2025 season and hopefully, the fans get to see more of the iconic Bud 8 car on the racetrack. That again depends on how many races Jr. runs in given his packed schedule for the year.