Indy 500: Dale Earnhardt Jr. returning in 2021?

After attending the Indy 500 for the first time in 2019 as a member of the NBC broadcast team, will Dale Earnhardt Jr. be back in 2021?

Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s post-driving career as a full-time analyst in the NBC broadcast booth for NASCAR races had led to some other interesting opportunities that he may otherwise not gotten to experience.

One such experience was the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which he attended for the first time in 2019 as a member of the broadcast team.

Unfortunately, a 2020 return did not happen.

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Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the race was postponed from its usual Memorial Day Sunday date by nearly three months, and it did not take place until Sunday, August 23, marking the first time in 104 editions that it took place outside of the month of May.

In 2019, the race took place on Sunday, May 26, at which point the Cup Series was still in the early portion of the schedule during which Fox was broadcasting each race. In 2020, because it was pushed back to August, NBC had already taken over its portion of the Cup Series schedule.

But even if that weren’t the case, Earnhardt likely wouldn’t have been able to make it, due to NBC only wanting to bring as few people as possible just to get the job done.

But is a return to the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing” in the cards for NASCAR’s 15-time Most Popular Driver Award winner in 2021?

“I’m not sure what I’ve got on my plate for NBC outside of NASCAR, especially with the pandemic,” Earnhardt told Beyond the Flag following a discussion of his exciting new partnership with Nicorette.

“I don’t know whether they’ll send me into Indy next year, or will it be a strip-down sort of tight crew to be able to just accomplish what they need to accomplish if we’re still under some restrictions with the virus. So all that stuff is kind of playing it by ear going forward into next year. Hopefully we’re free and clear of all of this mess by then, but you just don’t know.”

The 105th running of the Indy 500 is provisionally scheduled to take place on Sunday, May 30, with live coverage from Indianapolis Motor Speedway set to be provided by NBC.