Dale Earnhardt Jr. has yet to run a race in NASCAR this season. The former Hendrick Motorsports driver has run a few races in the Xfinity Series every year since he retired from the sport as a full-timer. However, there are no plans for him to run this year in the competition just yet. In a recent interaction with SiriusXM Radio, Junior’s sister Kelley Earnhardt Miller revealed his plans for the rest of the year. It’s not something NASCAR fans would be too thrilled to hear.
Advertisement
The 49-year-old is currently running Late Model races and as per his sister, he’s quite happy doing it. Nothing concrete has been laid just yet for the two-time Xfinity Series champion. That doesn’t mean he won’t race at all in NASCAR this season, but there usually is a plan for the season by this point.
Junior completely moving away from competing in the sport will be a big loss for the stock car racing community. But it also has to be kept in mind that Junior is in the final stages of his racing career as a whole.
“He absolutely loves the racing and you know he…just ebbs and flows. He’s having a ton of fun in the Late Models and trying to run as much of that as he can. He wants to do that kind of four to six times a year. I don’t want to say he’s done Xfinity racing but we don’t have anything on the map right now for him,” she explained.
Miller suggested that there would be a more concrete plan about Junior’s schedule this year next month. Hopefully, the former HMS driver runs at least once, that would be enough to make a lot of race fans happy. Last season, he finished P5 in the Homestead-Miami race when he ran in the Xfinity Series.
JR Motorsports sign teenage wonderkid Zilisch
The JR Motorsports owner recently closed an exciting deal for his team. Teenage sensation Connor Zillisch will race for the team full-time in next year’s NASCAR Xfinity Series. The 18-year-old has made a name for himself thanks to his performances in the ARCA Menards Series. He is also signed to Trackhouse Racing as a development driver and this JRM role will go a big way in his growth.
“Connor is such an impressive driver at this young age. We’re excited for him to get behind the wheel full-time next season. He is on a path to sure success with support from Chevrolet, Trackhouse Racing, and now JR Motorsports,” Junior said in a media interaction.
It will be intriguing to see how Zilisch performs in his debut Xfinity Series season next year. There is a lot of hype surrounding the teenager as he has competed in a Truck Series race this year (COTA) in which he earned pole position and finished P4.
