Even aside from his role as team co-owner of JR Motorsports in the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series, where he decided to stick around for at least one race each season following his retirement from full-time Cup Series action in 2017, Dale Earnhardt Jr. just couldn't get away from the sport completely.
Or even partially.
So he took on a new role in the NBC Sports broadcast booth immediately after he retired, and his stint there got off to a bang, with his infamous "slide job!" call at Chicagoland Speedway in July 2018 marking the start of a highly successful Cup Series announcing career alongside Rick Allen, Jeff Burton, and Steve Letarte, who had served as his crew chief for four years with Hendrick Motorsports.
But after the 2023 season, Earnhardt made the surprising decision to step away from the booth and not renew his contract with NBC for the following year.
It didn't take much time for the rumors to heat up about the 15-time Most Popular Driver Award winer potentially plotting his return, especially with the 2024 season having been the 10th and final season of the sport's active media deal with Fox and NBC.
Quickly, the rumors became more than rumors.
It was later announced that while Earnhardt still planned to watch the 2024 season unfold from afar – and NBC opted not to replace him with another analyst – his return to the sport was imminent as a part of Amazon Prime Video's new broadcast booth.
Prime Video, along with TNT Sports, joined Fox and NBC as media partners in NASCAR's new seven-year, $7.7 billion broadcast deal, and year number one was a major success.
Their five-race portion of the 2026 broadcast schedule is set to get underway this weekend with Charlotte Motor Speedway's Coca-Cola 600, and Earnhardt spoke about his decision to return to announcing a year ago, following a year away.
"It’s hard for me to explain how fun being a broadcaster is," he told FanSided's Beyond the Flag. "It sounds pretty cliché, man, but I just love racing, and I love stock cars, and I love NASCAR racing, and I love obviously the history of the sport a lot. I see a lot of that history even in the present day, watching what I see on the race track – drivers’ personalities that remind me of guys from the past and moments on the race track that remind you of something you’d seen before.
"It’s just an incredible experience to be there in person to see it. So I’m thankful that I found a way to work that into a new chapter of my life. Since I’m not behind the wheel, I’ve still got a role. It’s not important to me how big or small that role is. You just want to be a cog in the wheel of this big thing that rolls down the road every week."
But beyond the passion for the sport itself, Earnhardt spoke about the vision with which Prime Video presented him regarding how they planned to cover the sport.
It didn't take long to sell him on the idea.
"Amazon was interested in becoming part of what we were doing," he continued. "Streaming, I believe, is obviously integrating itself into all of our lives in many different ways. It was exciting to not only partner with them to see what kind of innovative ideas they may have and how freshly they may look at broadcasting our races, but also at the same time bring some of the things that I traditionally love about our broadcasts on board.
"That’s been really fun, and they have been just transparent and open and encouraging all of us to be vocal about what we see and what we like. It couldn’t have been easier, honestly."
Despite a nearly two-year gap between races, the transition was seamless for Earnhardt.
"I was really nervous just about working with a brand-new group, having done the job for a while," Earnhardt said, admitting he thought things might be different than what they were at NBC. "I was not sure what to expect, but it’s been seamless from the past role I had with NBC.
"I love doing the job. I tell everybody, when you don’t do it for a while and then jump back in there this weekend, we’ll get into that first practice, we’ll start doing some rehearsals, we’ll have some meetings, and it just comes over you immediately how much fun this is and how thankful you are that you get to do it. That comes out in our emotions in our shows because we just all love being there and being a part of it and talking about it."
This weekend is set to mark the start of Earnhardt's eighth season in a Cup Series broadcast booth, and he's just as excited as he was back in Chicago eight years ago.
"I can’t wait," he concluded. "I just cannot wait to get in the booth and get to work. "I’ve been sitting here for the last couple of days watching last year’s race and watching our work and seeing what was going well and taking tons of notes and getting all kinds of emails from Racing Insights to go through to try to be ready."
Letarte, who reunited with Earnhardt by joining Prime Video himself, spoke about his own move to add onto his existing NBC Sports responsibilities.
"Selfishly, my opportunity to work with Dale again," he said of his decision. "I enjoyed our time in competition. I enjoyed our time in the booth, and the chance to get to stand next to him again in the booth.
"He’s infectious – rarely is there a sport where the most popular human in the sport is the biggest fan of the sport, and we have that. I don’t take that for granted, and he makes me a much better announcer because of his enthusiasm and his drive to be so good at it. So that was a big part."
NBC's broadcast schedule dropped from 20 races to 14 due to the new deal. So naturally, Letarte had to figure out a way to get that number back up to as high as possible.
And like it was with Dale Jr., Prime's vision was the ultimate selling point.
"The first time I met with Prime, I thought we were going to have all these meetings about technology and all of this new stuff," Letarte continued. "The fact that those were all like the sprinkles on top of another Sunday really warmed my heart because I think the sport should be the star, and I think they allow it to be the star.
"Selfishly, I’ll be direct – I would announce 36 [races] if they would let me. There’s nothing I love better than going up to the booth or going to the pre-race desk on a Sunday and watching the best drivers in the world play chess against the best crew chiefs in the world. Maybe we’re crazy, but any chance I have to announce races, it just lines up great with a new partner who has as much enthusiasm as we do for the sport."
Letarte was quickly asked a follow-up question by Prime Video Senior Coordinating Producer Alex Strand about his 36-race remark, regarding what his wife Tricia would say if he actually found himself in the broadcast booth for every single points race on the Cup Series calendar.
"She’d probably be happy!" he said. "You’ve got to remember, I used to do 36 and worked a lot during the week. So this has been a transition for sure, but it’s really been a lot of fun."
Tune in to Prime Video this Sunday, May 24 at 6:00 p.m. ET for live coverage of the Coca-Cola 600 from Charlotte Motor Speedway. The upcoming NASCAR Cup Series races at Nashville Superspeedway, Michigan International Speedway, Pocono Raceway, and the brand-new Qualcomm Circuit on Naval Base Coronado are also set to be shown live on Prime.
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