NASCAR: Bizarre Dale Jr. rumor completely shot down
By Asher Fair
A false rumor circulated over the weekend that NASCAR asked NBC to remove Dale Jr. from the broadcast booth “for the foreseeable future”.
For the final time of the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season, Fox is set to provide live coverage of a race weekend this coming weekend at Sonoma Raceway. The Toyota/Save Mart 350 is scheduled to take place on Sunday afternoon.
Following this 110-lap race around the 12-turn,1.99-mile (3.203-kilometer) road course in Sonoma, California, the Cup Series is set for its lone off weekend of the season.
Then NBC is set to take over the broadcasting duties for the final 10 races of the regular season, plus the four-round, 10-race playoffs. These 20 races are all set to be broadcast live on either NBC or USA Network.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. has been a part of the NBC Sports broadcast booth since the 2018 season, the first season after his retirement from Cup Series competition.
That is set to be the case again in 2022, despite a rumor stating that NASCAR had asked NBC to remove him.
The rumor originated on a satire Twitter account, and a few extra seconds to scroll through other tweets on the account would give a clear indication that no, Earnhardt is not going to be out at NBC.
The fake post stated the following:
"“NASCAR has asked NBC to remove Dale Jr from broadcasts for the foreseeable future. Word is, NASCAR has taken issue with his recent podcast with former driver Jeremy Mayfield, as well as his comments about the All Star Race debacle. NBC has yet to comment on the situation.”"
Unfortunately, but not surprisingly in this day and age, several individuals replied/quote tweeted the post and actually believed the fake news, given the podcast reference and some of the discussions that took place during the episode being alluded to.
But rest assured, this is not true, and neither is anything else tweeted by the account, which is literally a self-described “satire” account and designed to produce fake news.
NBC’s first race broadcast of the 2022 Cup Series season is scheduled to take place on Sunday, June 26. The Ally 400, the 17th of 36 races on the schedule, is set to be broadcast live from Nashville Superspeedway beginning at 5:00 p.m. ET.
Dale Jr. is set to be in the booth, as usual, alongside lead announcer Rick Allen and analysts Steve Letarte and Jeff Burton.
It is actually set to mark his second booth appearance of the 2022 season. In an unprecedented (but not controversial) move, NBC allowed Earnhardt to join lead announcer Mike Joy and analyst Clint Bowyer in the Fox booth for the April race at Talladega Superspeedway.
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The final Fox race of the season, this Sunday afternoon’s Toyota/Save Mart 350, is set to be broadcast live from Sonoma Raceway on Fox Sports 1 beginning at 4:00 p.m. ET. Begin a free trial of FuboTV now and don’t miss any of the action!