Everyone remembers their first job. The two-time Xfinity Series champ Dale Earnhardt Jr joined NBC Sports in 2018 immediately after retiring from full-time racing, featuring on the booth alongside Rick Allen, Steve Letarte, and Jeff Burton. Yet, all good things must come to an end, and Junior’s NBC contract ended in 2023. With the upcoming 2025 season, the 49-year-old is gearing up to take on broadcasting duties once again, only this time he will be chartering in unknown territory.

Getting outside the comfort zone is never easy, but that’s exactly what Dale Earnhardt Jr will have to get used to when he begins his role at two broadcasting booths, namely Amazon Prime Video and TNT. Each will be featuring five races in the season, with Warner Brothers Discovery races being broadcasted on TNT and streamed on Max, while Amazon Prime Video’s subscription will give fans access to their coverage. On top of that, TNT and Prime Video have secured exclusive rights to practice and qualifying sessions with the latter covering practice and qualifying for almost the entire first half of the NASCAR Cup Series season. But there’s more.

A lot of it rides on the 15-time NASCAR Most Popular Driver as both networks will be expecting the viewers to have a smooth transition by bringing such a familiar name and face into their fold. Additionally, you’ll be watching Junior interview special guests as part of a new Bleacher Report series while driving each of TNT’s five NASCAR Sprint Cup Series tracks with them in the passenger seat. For Junior, watching TNT make a return to NASCAR, after what was a 32-year collaboration that began in 1983, will be “so nostalgic to see them return to the sport and to be a part of their team,” Junior said in May.

This brings an element of complexity for Dale Jr, who will have to hit the ground running and adapt to two different formats in a short period, something he was understandably skeptical about as was evident in the pre-race conference at the Xfinity Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway. Remembering his time at NBC Sports, Dale Earnhardt Jr said in the pre-race press conference,

“I really really loved working with NBC and I miss it terribly. I miss them, we had so much fun. It’s everyone there, from Sam all the way down, just really great people.

“It was kind of one of them jobs where you’re kind of always critical. I have never really felt like a veteran or felt like I was a 100% sure of what was exactly coming at me every single weekend. So, you over prepare and you try to be as ready as you can be… When I am not doing that this year at all, I feel like I’m a bit nervous, I guess, about jumping back in there next year and get right to it.

“With the NBC deal, we had 20 races to sort of get our sea legs in and I always felt personally that I wasn’t really doing the job as well as I wanted to until we got toward the final ten races, and man, we’d get to Phoenix, and go, ‘Wow! we’re just really hitting our stride and it’s over.’ It took us so many races to feel like we had worked out all of the kinks. But we don’t have that luxury next year. 

“It’ll be a quick 10-race sprint with two different partners that want to do things slightly differently. So really it’s two five-race sprints and I think just trying to make sure that we as a group are doing a bunch of mock runs and a lot of preparation leading up to that so that we try to hit the ground in that first race and have a good product right away is going to be really important to me.”

It’s not surprising that Junior opted out of making an Xfinity Series appearance next year, considering that he will have to cope with the broadcasting demands from two different networks. Being a perfectionist comes at a cost, and in this case, it might force Dale Earnhardt Jr to dial back on some of his extracurricular activities next season to get comfortable in his new role. It will be interesting to see how this might affect Junior’s participation in the Late Model Series, as the North Carolina native has reiterated that he will continue to participate in grassroots racing in 2025.

Dale Jr overcomes the odds to secure an impressive result at Bristol

All’s well that ends well! That’s exactly what Dale Earnhardt Jr will be thinking, after finishing seventh at Bristol Motor Speedway in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. Given how his race started, it’s an achievement that he wasn’t forced to retire early, after facing radio issues for the majority of the first half of the 2024 Food City 300. It was almost like Junior was racing blind, as he wasn’t getting any input from his spotter TJ Majors, despite switching channels, earpieces, and even the entire helmet. Luckily, the North Carolina native didn’t lose any laps, which may have played an important role in his top-10 finish.

The experience of being behind the wheel of his No. 88 Chevy at the 0.533-mile short track left Junior elated, and he couldn’t help but express his delight in the post-race interview. The former Hendrick Motorsports driver said, “I loved every lap. It was great. I mean, I got everything I wanted out of this. I’ll miss it next year, and thinking about it now, I’ll probably sign up next year for somewhere else. I’m trying really hard not to think about where I’ll run right now but I do want to take next year off, focus on my broadcasting and make sure that’s a priority and my family too.”

2025 will undoubtedly be an important year for Dale Earnhardt Jr. His team JR Motorsports will be in a transition phase, with both Sam Mayer and Brandon Jones moving on from the Xfinity team and Connor Zilisch joining in as a full-time driver. With plenty to look forward to, it’s not surprising that Junior is opting out of making a NASCAR appearance. However, with Martin Truex Jr eager to race against him one last time, could Dale Jr change his mind and continue his 27-year-long tradition of competing in an Xfinity Series race? Time will tell.