NASCAR: The Earnhardt name is back full-time for 2023

The Earnhardt name is returning to NASCAR competition in a full-time capacity for the 2023 season, with Jeffrey Earnhardt set to compete in the Xfinity Series.

Alpha Prime Racing recently confirmed two part-time drivers, Ryan Ellis and Sage Karam, for their No. 45 Chevrolet during 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series season, and they have since announced a full-time driver of the No. 44 Chevrolet. Jeffrey Earnhardt is set to pilot that car throughout the 2023 season.

This announcement makes Earnhardt the team’s first full-time driver since they rebranded from Martins Motorsports ahead of the 2022 season.

Earnhardt competed part-time for three teams throughout the 2022 campaign, none of which was Alpha Prime Racing. He competed in 13 total races and recorded a top finish of second place at Talladega Superspeedway for Richard Childress Racing. He competed for Sam Hunt Racing in nine races and Emerling-Gase Motorsports in another three.

Earnhardt hasn’t run a full NASCAR season since 2014 when he competed for JD Motorsports in the Xfinity Series. He was designated as a full-time driver for the team in 2021 but only ended up competing in 29 of 33 races, the same number of races in which he competed for the team in 2020.

The 33-year-old Mooresville, North Carolina native also ran 34 of 36 races on the 2017 Cup Series schedule for Circle Sport – The Motorsports Group.

The last time an Earnhardt ran a full schedule in any NASCAR series was in 2017, when Dale Jr. competed full-time in the Cup Series for the final time before he retired.

Jeffrey’s deal with Alpha Prime Racing, coupled with Dale Jr.’s plan to run two Xfinity Series races for his own JR Motorsports team after running one each season following his Cup Series retirement, means that the Earnhardt name is set to compete in NASCAR for the 49th consecutive season, going all the way back to Dale Sr.’s Cup Series debut in 1975.