NASCAR: 5 positive storylines nobody could have predicted
By Asher Fair
Dale Earnhardt Jr. contending on Sundays
This slide also ties in with the creation and introduction of the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series. How many people foresaw Dale Earnhardt Jr. battling for NASCAR victories on Sunday afternoons in 2020?
Earnhardt, the two-time Daytona 500 winner and 15-time Most Popular Driver Award winner, retired at the end of the 2017 season, and his health played a big part in that decision. The previous year, he had been sidelined for several races after a heavy crash at Michigan International Speedway left him with concussion-like symptoms.
He had since competed in one Xfinity Series race per year, doing so in 2018 at Richmond Raceway and in 2019 at Darlington Raceway.
Who would have predicted that he’d be going wheel to wheel with Denny Hamlin battling to take the checkered flag in 2020 over a field full of Cup Series drivers?
That is exactly what happened at virtual Homestead-Miami Speedway, and after finishing in second place in that race, Earnhardt placed sixth at virtual Texas Motor Speedway. The fan-favorite driver is back competing in NASCAR against the full-time Cup Series stars on a regular basis.
If points were being kept for this series, he would be in a second place tie. His “return” has been much more than a novelty.
The downside of this is the fact that his one start in the 2020 Xfinity Series season had been slated to come at Homestead-Miami Speedway, and that obviously didn’t happen. However, that race still might be rescheduled anyway.