BRISTOL, Tenn. -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. will compete in Friday night's Xfinity Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway. Will it be his last time in a NASCAR race? He's not quite ready to say anything definitive about his racing future.
"Well, I'm not planning on racing next year," Earnhardt said Friday at Bristol. "I'll be foolish to say I'm never going to run again because I don't know well enough to stay away from it.
"And I'll probably miss it next year and be absolutely willing to sign up with anything that might be beneficial to JR Motorsports."
As the Hall of Fame driver explained, he has competed in NASCAR in recent seasons due to how it benefits his race team. He has agreed to race as part of a sponsorship package deal with Hellmann's and Unilever.
Earnhardt does not have any requirements to compete in 2025 to help fill out the sponsorship calendar. That doesn't mean this situation will not arise in the future. He may return to the driver's seat in 2026 or in one of the remaining years in which he feels he can be competitive.
"I don't have any plans, but that's kind of the way I like it," Earnhardt added. "If a partner comes together with a package that helps one of the other cars fill out multiple races that we have some inventory, I'm absolutely on board to do a race for that reason alone."
Earnhardt will not compete in Xfinity in 2025, but that doesn't mean he will be away from racing entirely. He will return to the broadcast booth for a 10-race stretch split between Amazon Prime Video and TNT Sports.
He will also compete in some grassroots racing while continuing to drive one of the JR Motorsports Late Model entries, something he has done more frequently in recent years.
"What I love -- to be honest with you -- driving that Late Model stock car," Earnhardt said. "I mean, the reason why, the things that I'll enjoy (at Bristol) are there as well, and I can go to some grassroots race track and have a good time and enjoy what I love about driving cars just the same, so I'm gonna continue to do that next year as well."