NASCAR: 3 hints about Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s 2021 plans
By Asher Fair
Dale Earnhardt Jr. Hint #2 – Schedule
Dale Earnhardt Jr. hinted that the Martinsville Speedway race, which is the race he wanted to compete in, would be too soon for Hellman’s, which will serve as the primary sponsor on his #8 Chevrolet for wherever he turns up like they have done for his last three one-off efforts.
“Hellmann’s and the guys, they need a little bit of time to sort of activate the sponsorship and get their money’s worth, and we need to allow them to be able to maximize that. For what we ask of them, they deserve that much from us. And they cannot activate in time to be able to run the first Martinsville race, so that knocks that one off the list, because Martinsville is where I wanted to go.”
That race is scheduled to take place on Friday, April 9, so anything before that is out of the question.
Where does that leave the three tracks where he has recently competed?
This hint alone rules out Homestead-Miami Speedway, despite the fact that he has been there recently — in fact, more recently than any other track.
The race at Homestead-Miami Speedway is the third race on the 33-race schedule and is scheduled to take place on Saturday, February 27. If early April is too soon, late February is far too soon. So cross that one off.
Plus, he was just there in June, and it was always implied that he wouldn’t run at the same track twice in a row.