Drivers in NASCAR’s Cup Collection will start the postseason Chase on Sunday on the Southern 500 in Darlington, South Carolina — one of many sport’s crown jewel races.
However different races are taking place within the Palmetto State this weekend, too. One explicit competitors may need plenty of eyeballs on it Friday evening.
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About 13 miles south of Darlington at Florence Motor Speedway on Sept. 4, NASCAR Corridor of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. will return to the racetrack to run a late mannequin within the sequence he co-owns, the CARS Tour.
Earnhardt has competed in races in his Late Mannequin Inventory machine earlier than, however this would be the first time he is working in a Professional Late Mannequin — there are some variations within the construct of the automotive and a Professional Late Mannequin has a decrease horsepower.
However finally, it would not matter what sort of automotive Earnhardt goes to be driving: Him working a race of any type is an enormous deal on the planet of motorsports.
This race will reunite Earnhardt together with his cousin, Tony Eury Jr., who was as soon as his crew chief within the Cup Collection. Eury is now the Director of Chassis Growth at GMS Race Vehicles, and Earnhardt will run Friday evening within the No. 23 for GMS on the CARS Tour occasion.
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Earnhardt broke the information that he could be racing at Florence earlier this week on his podcast, “The Dale Jr. Obtain.”
“Tony Jr. has been selecting at me somewhat bit about driving one among his automobiles,” Earnhardt mentioned. “So I mentioned, ‘Hey man, let’s go run Florence.’ They’re constructing these nice automobiles and so they’ve bought this new chassis and so they’ve been racing them everywhere in the nation. It will be type of like a household reunion. I am trying ahead to it.
“(Eury) mentioned, ‘What would you like it to appear to be?’ And I mentioned ‘do not care’ and ‘do not even put my title on it.’ Let’s simply present up and drive it.”
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See victory lane celebrations with 2026 NASCAR race winners
March 8: Ryan Blaney celebrates successful the Straight Discuss Wi-fi 500 at Phoenix Raceway.
(Meg Oliphant, Getty Photos)
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See victory lane celebrations with 2026 NASCAR race winners
March 8: Ryan Blaney celebrates successful the Straight Discuss Wi-fi 500 at Phoenix Raceway.
(Meg Oliphant, Getty Photos)
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See victory lane celebrations with 2026 NASCAR race winners
March 1: Tyler Reddick celebrates successful the DuraMax Grand Prix Powered by RelaDyne at Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas.
(Logan Riely, Getty Photos)
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See victory lane celebrations with 2026 NASCAR race winners
Feb. 22: Tyler Reddick celebrates successful the Autotrader 400 at EchoPark Speedway in Hampton, Georgia.
(Mady Mertens, Imagn Photos)
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See victory lane celebrations with 2026 NASCAR race winners
Feb. 15: Tyler Reddick celebrates together with his household and crew after successful the 68th working of the Daytona 500 at Daytona Worldwide Speedway.
(Mike Watters, Imagn Photos)
The son of seven-time Cup Collection champion Dale Earnhardt, Junior additionally had an extremely profitable profession in NASCAR. He was twice the champion of the second-tier Busch Collection — now referred to as the O’Reilly Auto Elements Collection — and twice gained the Daytona 500. He was named NASCAR’s Most Standard Driver for 15 consecutive seasons from 2003 to 2017. In 2023, Dale Jr. joined his late father in being named one among NASCAR’s 75 Biggest Drivers.
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In all, Earnhardt gained 50 NASCAR races in his profession, with 26 victories within the top-level Cup Collection and one other 24 on the O’Reilly degree.
Earnhardt battled concussions on the backstretch of his Cup Collection profession and hasn’t pushed a race within the prime degree of NASCAR since retiring following the 2017 season. He has run a handful of races — largely at quick tracks — within the O’Reilly Collection since then for the workforce he co-owns together with his sister Kelley, JR Motorsports. Earnhardt’s final NASCAR race got here at Bristol in 2024 the place he completed seventh within the O’Reilly race.
Outdoors of that, Earnhardt sometimes runs a number of instances a 12 months within the CARS Tour, a late-model touring sequence. Different co-owners within the CARS Tour embody NASCAR Corridor of Famers Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton, Trackhouse Racing proprietor Justin Marks, and Speedway Motorsports CEO Marcus Smith.
The sequence has been a proving floor for younger drivers making an attempt to make their method into NASCAR. Present drivers in NASCAR who’ve raced within the CARS Tour embody Layne Riggs, Zane Smith, Corey Heim, Josh Berry, Kaden Honeycutt, Brendan Queen, Tristan McKee, Carson Kvapil, Sammy Smith, Todd Gilliland and Connor Zilisch. A CARS Tour race that Earnhardt positioned third in at North Wilkesboro in 2022 offered a key proof-of-concept for the historic monitor to be revived.
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Earnhardt, who as soon as gained 4 consecutive Cup Collection races at Talladega, shall be 52 in October. He final raced within the CARS Tour on the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway within the spring the place he completed twelfth.
