How long will the Earnhardt name be in NASCAR?

By Asher Fair | Feb 13, 2020

INDIANAPOLIS - AUGUST 1: Dale Earnhardt Jr., driving the #8 DEI Budweiser Chevrolet during practice for the NASCAR Winston Cup Brickyard 400 on August 1, 2003 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis, Indiana.( Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images) /

The Earnhardt name has competed in NASCAR for decades, most notably with Dale. But for how much longer will that be the case?

No name has a tie to NASCAR‘s past as well as its present-day competition quite like the name Earnhardt does.

Most notably, Dale Earnhardt tied Richard Petty’s record of seven career championships, winning 76 races in the process, before his death in a last-lap crash in the 2001 Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway.

Son Dale Jr., while he was unable to win even one title, managed to double his father’s Daytona 500 win total with two. He won 26 races over the course of his career, and he unsurprisingly retired as the 15-time reigning winner of the Most Popular Driver Award when he walked away at the end of the 2017 season.

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Dale Jr. still plans to compete in one Xfinity Series race per season, which is what he did in 2018 and 2019 driving for JR Motorsports, the team he co-owns.

After driving at Richmond Raceway and Darlington Raceway in September of 2018 and August of 2019, respectively, he is set to make his 2020 start much earlier in the season in March at Homestead-Miami Speedway. He has confirmed to FanSided on more than one occasion that he plans to continue doing this for as long as he can, and at 45 years old, that could be for several more years. He also confirmed that he would likely to continue switching up the venue.

But beyond that, for how much longer will the Earnhardt name compete in NASCAR?

Before Bobby Dale Earnhardt was confirmed at MBM Motorsports for the final four races of the 2019 Xfinity Series season at Kansas Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway, ISM Raceway (now Phoenix Raceway) and Homestead-Miami Speedway, there had been 80 races contested across the Cup Series, Xfinity Series and Truck Series in 2019.

Only nine had featured an Earnhardt, the lowest total since Dale competed in five of the 30 races on the 1978 Cup Series schedule.

By the time the season ended, 12 of the 92 races across NASCAR’s top three series featured an Earnhardt, still the lowest mark since 1978, which was four years before the Xfinity Series existed and 17 years before the Truck Series came into being.

Jeffrey Earnhardt competed in seven Xfinity Series races and one Cup Series race while Dale Jr. compete in his lone Xfinity Series race and Bobby Dale competed in three of the aforementioned four Xfinity Series races, as he failed to qualify for one.

The Earnhardt name has been in NASCAR since Ralph Earnhardt, Dale Sr.’s father, made his debut in 1956 at Hickory Speedway, and only a handful of seasons have passed since than without that name involved in competition.

But before long, we could be without that name in stock car racing.

Up until last week, the only Earnhardt confirmation for the 2020 season is Dale Jr.’s entry at Homestead-Miami Speedway in the Xfinity Series, and the only two other active Earnhardt drivers are Jeffrey and Bobby Dale.

Jeffrey hasn’t had a true full-time ride since the 2014 Xfinity Series season with JD Motorsports, or the 2017 Cup Series season if you count his 34-race effort with Circle Sport – The Motorsports Group. He is slated to compete part-time for JD Motorsports in the Xfinity Series this season, a deal that was confirmed last week.

Bobby Dale, meanwhile, has made seven career starts in nine attempts over the course of three seasons.

It has been 46 years since the last NASCAR season without an Earnhardt, that being the 1974 season, one year prior to Dale Sr.’s debut. As long as Dale Jr. is around competing in the Xfinity Series, that streak won’t end.

But another one might.

Perhaps most notably, the 1974 season is also the most recent without an Earnhardt in the Cup Series, as Jeffrey competed in 17 Cup Series races the year after Dale Jr. retired.

As of now, that is slated to change in 2020, and if it does, it may not changed back at any point in the near future.

Next. Top 10 NASCAR drivers of all-time. dark

For how much longer will the name Earnhardt be tied to NASCAR competition? Will the streak of several decades of having at least one compete on some level each year come to an end in the near future?