Dale Earnhardt Jr. has worn a number of hats in his lengthy racing career. He’s a two-time Xfinity Series champion, a NASCAR Hall of Famer, co-owner of a very successful Xfinity organization and businessman.
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But Junior is particularly fond of the CARS Tour late model series that he co-owns along with Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton and Justin Marks. Even though his late father was a seven-time NASCAR Cup champ, Junior’s heart has and always will be in grassroots racing.
That’s why the CARS Tour is so important to him and his partners. But they didn’t just buy the series and leave it as an investment. Nope, Earnhardt, Harvick, Burton and Marks have been putting a lot of money and other resources into the CARS Tour to grow it and draw more fans to the series’ races.
“We run a particular car. It’s always going to stay in one lane,” Earnhardt told Racing America during a recent event at Florence Motor Speedway in South Carolina.
“We’re never going to leave these types of racetracks and go to bigger and better venues. We love the grassroots connection. We love the vibe and energy that you get when you’re at a racetrack like Florence.”
Earnhardt wants to see the tour grow even more
But Earnhardt would also like to see the CARS Tour grow, within reason, never forgetting its grassroots history and legacy, knowing that many current and former NASCAR drivers got their start in the CARS Tour.
“We kind of know where we’re going to live and where our lane is,” Earnhardt said. He added that they wanted the purses to get bigger, the sponsorships and the number of people invested in the series to increase, and that they were trying to make it as affordable as possible.
Earnhardt continued, “We’re always talking about do we need to try to change things, is the weekend schedule perfect, is it convenient, is it costing people unnecessary money?
“We work on the details like that and it’s hard to try and work with the tracks to try and keep the weekends convenient. They want their locals to come run, like Bandoleros and so forth.
“You go talk to tracks and they’ll say to have just our Pros and Late Models, nothing else. Just get our show, bang bang, get done and life goes on.
“But our track guys want to race in front of people like that and get out and win and celebrate in front of a really good crowd. The track wants to take care of their folks and the people that race here weekly.”
Dale Jr. is always open to suggestions to make the tour better
Junior and his partners keep an open mind and are always open to suggestions from anyone, from drivers to team owners, track promoters to fans, to make the Tour even more competitive and popular.
“It’s fun. I love the challenge of trying to get the Tour happy,” Earnhardt said. “You’re never going to make everybody happy, but we’d love to get the Tour to where the people here that are running it (track owners) love it, it makes sense financially. But we’re not all the way there yet. There’s always work to do.”
“We love the grassroots connection. We love the vibe and energy you get at a racetrack like @FmSpeedway2025 .”@DaleJr speaks on the growth & future of the @CARSTour everything from the prize money, schedule & #NASCAR @RaceFairgrounds
— Racing America (@RacingAmerica) August 30, 2025
Junior says consideration is being given to start the season earlier, in February, and to cut one race in the summer due to the heat and also allow drivers and team owners to spend more time with their families, go on vacations, etc.
“We don’t want to increase our races. I think our footprint of 14-15 races in Late Model Stocks is good, and the pros run 13 or so every year,” Earnhardt said. “Maybe they’d run 10. Maybe rather run less races for the same amount of money.
He explained that he often discussed various topics with the teams, asking them what kind of purse boost they preferred, whether for the back of the field, the middle, or for winning.
Earnhardt said he was trying to understand what motivated drivers to show up and race, noting that figuring that out would be valuable for the growth of the Tour.
