For his second CARS Tour start of the season at Anderson Motor Speedway on Saturday night, following his appearance at Cordele Motor Speedway earlier in the year, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his JR Motorsports Late Model Stock Car team rolled out the iconic white No. 8 Budweiser MLB All-Star Game paint scheme.
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The look, immortalized with his 2001 Pepsi 400 win at Daytona International Speedway, returned with a slight change, this time accentuating the MLB Speedway Classic held on August 2 at Bristol Motor Speedway. But as invested as he is in the CARS Tour, where he has run at least one event annually since 2022, Dale Jr. had to put several family priorities on hold to strap into the car.
Drivers may step away from the grind, but racing never truly steps away from them. Dale Jr. epitomizes that creed: once a racer, always a racer. He recently admitted there’s still plenty of Late Model Tour competition left in him.
While unsure how much, he said, “I get to do this. I do this because it’s fun. I don’t need or have to do it. I love the tour. I love this type of racing and I want to be around it… So, I come here and I’m like, ‘Man, what if I showed up and I didn’t drive.’ I might wish I would have raced, right? So, I’m trying to push myself to run a little bit more.”
Yet the pull of racing comes with tradeoffs. Earnhardt explained, “I got two little girls. I got to spend a lot of time with them. I’m missing Amy’s grandfather having a 90th birthday party for him in Texas, and so she’s there with the girls. I’m missing that. So I’m like, ‘I’m missing things I shouldn’t be missing.’ But I love doing this.”
What does @DaleJr‘s future racing schedule look like?
Hear from the driver following his race in the @CARSTour event at Anderson Speedway⤵️
@BuddyPulley pic.twitter.com/NVtQpWP715
— Racing America (@RacingAmerica) August 17, 2025
At least the finish offered some redemption. After managing only P21 at Cordele, Earnhardt rebounded to P10 at Anderson. Starting 22nd, he settled into rhythm and climbed to 17th with 73 laps to go when contact off Turn 4 with Lanie Buice sent him spinning down the front stretch. With no further contact, he straightened the white-and-red Budweiser All-Star Game No. 8 and rejoined the race.
From there, he clawed back into the top-10 by the closing laps, salvaging the result. Next up for Junior and the JRM Late Model crew is Florence Motor Speedway on August 29. And while Anderson’s searing heat took its toll, as Earnhardt put it, “I was smoked in there. It was hot,” he’s banking on cooler conditions when they unload in Florence.
