Dale Earnhardt Jr., known for his appearances in music videos, commercials, and promotional content, has now joined forces with country star Luke Combs to help shine a light on grassroots racing. Known for his continuous support of short-track and late-model racing, Earnhardt has found yet another way to champion this cause.
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In the music video titled Back in the Saddle, set to release on Friday, Earnhardt will feature alongside NASCAR legend Richard Petty. Combs teased the video on X, sharing images that include a checkered flag collage, where two photos of Earnhardt from his racing days, including his iconic No. 8 car, are visible. Another image features Petty’s belt with his famous No. 43.
During his latest podcast episode, Earnhardt shared the backstory of how the collaboration came together. Junior said that Luke texted him, “‘Hey man, I’m going to do this music video for this song.’ He sent me the song. He said, ‘Would you want to be in it?’ I said, ‘Yes, absolutely.’ And so we started talking about what we would do, where we would do it.”
Music video will be out with the song this Friday. Can’t wait for y’all to see it pic.twitter.com/4VC4qAZmAp
— Luke Combs (@lukecombs) July 21, 2025
Initially, they planned to film with a Next Gen car at Charlotte Motor Speedway, but with no cars available, Dale Jr. proposed using a late-model stock car on a short track to match the song’s theme of getting “Back in the Saddle.”
This also gave them an opportunity to showcase grassroots racing. They chose Tri-County Motor Speedway, wrapping two late-model cars identically, one stripped down with cameras mounted for close-up shots, and another left pristine for wide-angle filming.
Earnhardt further described how they captured scenes of Combs in the grandstand, walking the track, and standing in the flagstand while he circled the speedway. “I ran some relatively hard laps in the car with the cameras mounted all over it,” Earnhardt said, before adding about hopping into the second car to crank out “25 really hard laps.”
As for Petty’s cameo, Earnhardt added, “He kind of comes in at the end. He’s like, ‘Hey, my turn. I want to run. I want to drive.’”
