NASCAR: 45-year Earnhardt streak at risk of being snapped

By Asher Fair | Nov 5, 2020

Dale Earnhardt Jr., Hendrick Motorsports, NASCAR - Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports /

There has not yet been an Earnhardt in the NASCAR Cup Series this year. The last time that happened was all the way back in 1974.

For 45 consecutive seasons from 1975 to 2019, the NASCAR Cup Series had featured at least one race with an Earnhardt behind the wheel.

Ralph Earnhardt debuted in 1956 and competed in at least one race for six of the nine season from 1956 to 1964. He retired after 1966, when he attempted but failed to qualify for one event.

The name did not return to the sport for nearly another decade, but it hasn’t been completely gone from NASCAR’s top level since. Dale Earnhardt Sr. made his debut in 1975 and competed until he was killed in a last-lap crash at Daytona International Speedway in 2001, winning seven championships along the way.

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His son, Dale Earnhardt Jr., made his Cup Series debut in 1999 and became a full-time driver in 2000, a role he held until 2017.

But by that point, Jeffrey, Dale Jr.’s nephew, had also been competing in the Cup Series for several years. Jeffrey made his series debut in 2015 and ran an expanded schedule in 2016 before becoming a full-time driver, sans the two road courses in 2017. He competed part-time again in 2018 and drove in one race in 2019 to extend the Earnhardt streak to 45 consecutive years in the Cup Series.

In the Xfinity Series this season, Jeffrey Earnhardt has driven full-time for JD Motorsports since the sport returned from the 10-week hiatus caused by the coronavirus pandemic back in May at Darlington Raceway, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. drove for JR Motorsports in the first race at Homestead-Miami Speedway in mid-June.

So 46 consecutive seasons have now seen an Earnhardt competing in NASCAR on some level.

However, we may not see the Cup Series streak extend to 46 years, as we have yet to see an Earnhardt compete at stock car racing’s highest level this year.

Jeffrey had been seen as the only driver who could extend this streak, as Bobby Dale, his older brother who last compete in the 2019 Xfinity Series season, is not slated to make his Cup Series debut this year.

There had been rumors that legendary boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. would be entering a team called The Money Team Racing and fielding the #50 Chevrolet for Jeffrey in the Cup Series at some point this season, but those rumors have not come to fruition.

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There is now just one race remaining on the schedule this Sunday, November 8 at Phoenix Raceway, and there are no Earnhardts on the entry list for it.

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