NASCAR Rumor: Insider Shatters Fans’ Hopes of Dale Jr & Martin Truex Jr’s Daytona 500 Alliance

The Great American Race is right around the corner. Hosting who’s who of the motorsports world, the 2025 Daytona 500 is drumming up a load of excitement. Ranging from 4-time IndyCar winner Helio Castroneves to newly inducted full-time Cup driver Shane van Gisbergen, many renowned names will take part. The past jewels of the sport will also be there – but Dale Jr.’s fans may be expecting too much there.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. hung up his firesuit in 2017 and has never started a Cup race since. However, his team JR Motorsports recently stirred up the rumor mill hinting at either Dale Jr. or freshly retired Martin Truex Jr.’s footfall. However, fans just realized that will remain what it is – a rumor.

Hopes of Dale Jr.’s fans gone in the wind

Since JR Motorsports established itself in 2006, it has been an Xfinity Series team – created from the remnants of Chance 2 Motorsports. However, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his sister Kelley Earnhardt Miller have tried to acquire a Cup Series charter since September 2022. Yet the soaring prices of charters left them delaying this decision. They missed the opportunity to buy BK Racing’s charter for $2 Million. By the end of 2023, prices were sky-high – Spire Motorsports bought a charter for $40 Million. However, a recent JRM announcement left fans speculating that hope may still be on the horizon.

JRM shared a warm-up post for an upcoming announcement and sent ripples of excitement through the community. Fans surmised it could either be Dale Jr. or Martin Truex Jr. taking a ride for the Daytona 500. Dale Jr.’s twin victories (2004, 2014) and 2017 Cup champion MTJ’s fervent wish to grab an elusive Daytona 500 win made the prospect more exciting.

However, NASCAR podcast BrakeHard shattered this dream: “Dale isn’t racing the 500. Guesses in the replies, also wrong.” They replied to an MTJ fan’s comment as well, claiming the former Joe Gibbs Racing driver is already fixed. “Nope his deal is done.”

JR Motorsports has touted the prospect of going Cup racing for a long time. It may be time to level up, especially after Justin Allgaier won his first Xfinity Series championship in 2024. However, Dale Earnhardt Jr. clarified something in June last year. Until NASCAR refines its charter agreement, JRM’s Cup prospect would remain a dream. He was convinced that the soaring prices made it impossible.

“I’m almost feeling like that if I were to ever get involved in the Cup side, it would be like an investment — my personal monetary investment in something current… I don’t know if we’ll ever have JR Motorsports physically owning charters, running a race team operating every facet of that. I think that that ship has sailed.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr. had decided earlier he would not race in NASCAR in 2025.

Focusing on the camera instead

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After Dale Earnhardt Jr retired from the Cup Series in 2017, he took up many responsibilities. He became an NBC broadcaster, operated his popular podcast, and entered in select races. However, ever since NASCAR signed a $7.7 Billion media rights deal, it booked Dale Jr. for 2025. He left the NBC booth in 2024, but Dale Jr will return for 10 races this season.

Those include points races 13-22 on the Cup schedule. Amazon Prime Video will cover five, and TNT will cover the rest. So wheeling the No. 88 Chevrolet at Bristol Motor Speedway last year marked the last NASCAR race he started. Dale Jr. claimed then that he had no plans to get behind the wheel in 2025.

Dale Earnhardt Jr made it clear at the Bristol Media Center last September. “Well, I’m not planning on racing next year.”

Yet he admitted that he may regret his decision, which JR Motorsports. has a huge influence on. “I run this race and have ran this race over the last several years because of the big benefit that it is to JR Motorsports. It’s a package deal where Hellmann’s and Unilever have put their logos on Justin’s [Allgaier] car and it’s helped fill out that car. And I don’t have a requirement to run next year, so I may just not do it. And I will miss it terribly, regret that I didn’t race, and probably in 2026 find me somewhere that I can go compete in the Xfinity Series again. But right now, I don’t have any plans.”

Evidently, fans can rest assured that Dale Jr will not wheel a NASCAR race car this season. Instead, we can focus on the broadcast booth to spot him.