Dale Earnhardt Jr. will race at Bristol Motor Speedway in the NASCAR Food City 300
Retired NASCAR Hall of Fame driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. will return to the track on Sept. 20 for the Food City 300 Xfinity Series night race at Bristol Motor Speedway.
It is the 20-year-anniversary of when Earnhardt coined the phrase “It’s Bristol, Baby!” after winning the 2004 night race in the Cup Series. Earnhardt had also won the Xfinity Series race at Bristol a night earlier. He became the first driver to sweep both races.
Earnhardt Jr., 49, will again drive the blue, yellow and white Hellmann’s No. 88 Chevy Camaro in the NASCAR Xfinity Series regular-season finale race.
In the 2023 Food City 300, Earnhardt kept fans on the edge of their seats by leading and running in the top five of the race for most of the night. An electrical fire in his dash with 29 laps remaining took him out and left him with a 30th place finish.
“We had a positive wire short up in the top of the dash, and the casing on the wire melted down onto the leg brace and caught the foam in the leg brace and the cloth cover of the leg brace on fire, so it burnt the leg off my uniform,” Earnhardt said. “It was like another lap, and I was probably gonna be blistered up. But, no burns on my leg. Just barely escaped. I was disappointed to have to get out. We were gonna run fourth or better.”
The Food City 300 will continue an important streak for Earnhardt Jr. He has run at least one Xfinity Series race each year since his retirement in 2017.
“I’ll run as long as I can,” Earnhardt said last year following the Bristol race. “I like running one here and there. I think I still feel young. I overachieved tonight in my eyes in terms of how I ran, so I guess that gave me some confidence to try do to one here and there for a couple more years.”
In 13 career Xfinity starts at Bristol Earnhardt has posted 10 top-10 finishes and seven top-fives, which includes the 2004 sweep. Prior to last year’s 30th-place effort, his worst Xfinity finish was 22nd in his first attempt in 1997 when he started the race on the outside pole for local team owner Ed Whitaker.
“There was a tremendous atmosphere and buzz around Bristol Motor Speedway when Dale Jr. was leading the Food City 300 last fall,” said Jerry Caldwell, president and general manager of Bristol Motor Speedway. “We are thrilled that he is returning to take care of some unfinished business this September. He is such a legend in the sport and has meant so much to fans in our region. We can’t wait to see him back in action on the high-banks in his No. 88 Hellmann’s Chevy.”
In addition to Earnhardt’s return in the Food City 300, the race is also the regular-season finale for the Xfinity Series, so the stakes will be high for Earnhardt's four full-time team cars as they aim for a playoff spot. Those drivers include defending Food City 300 winner Justin Algaier (No. 7); Sam Mayer (No. 1); Sammy Smith (No. 8) and Brandon Jones (No. 9).
Reach Mike organ at 615-259-8021 or on X @MikeOrganWriter
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Dale Earnhardt Jr.: NASCAR retired driver will race car at Bristol
