NASCAR legend confirms new landing spot for 2025 and beyond

Early in the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season, it was announced that Dale Earnhardt Jr. would not be returning for what would have been a seventh season in the NASCAR on NBC booth this year.

Earnhardt joined the booth in 2018, the year after he retired from Cup Series competition, and made his Cup Series broadcast debut in the July race at Chicagoland Speedway, which saw an iconic finish -- and an iconic call by Earnhardt -- between Kyle Busch and Kyle Larson.

With the two-time Daytona 500 winner out of a contract with NBC after last season and NASCAR's new media rights deal set to go into effect next year, he opted to step aside for 2024.

Rumors began to swirl that he would join both Amazon Prime Video and TNT Sports for 2025, as they are set to join Fox and NBC as a part of the new deal. Now it has been confirmed that Earnhardt is indeed set to join both networks beginning next year. The lengths of his new deals have not specifically been disclosed, but they are believed to span multiple seasons.

NASCAR media rights deal

The current deal, which has been in place since 2015, sees Fox cover the season's first 16 points races, plus the preseason Busch Light Clash exhibition race and the All-Star Race. Fox Sports 1 serves as the alternate network during Fox's portion of the schedule.

NBC takes over for the final 20 races, including the last 10 regular season races and all 10 playoff races. The NBCUniversal-owned USA Network serves as the alternate network during NBC's portion of the schedule and has done so since 2022, after NBC Sports Network shut down.

Beginning next year, Fox is set to drop down to the first 12 points races, plus the preseason Busch Light Clash exhibition race and the All-Star Race. Amazon Prime Video is set to cover the next five points races, and TNT Sports is set to cover the next five. NBC is then set to cover the final 14, including the entire postseason.

NASCAR on NBC moves forward without Earnhardt

This season, NBC is set to take over from Fox in June, with the first race following the switch being the Cup Series' first ever race at Iowa Speedway on Sunday, June 16.

That race is set to be shown on USA Network. NBC's first race of the season is the race at Nashville Superspeedway on Sunday, June 30.

The rest of the NBC booth is still set to consist of Rick Allen as the lead announcer and Jeff Burton and Steve Letarte as color commentators, but following the three-week Summer Olympics break in July and August, Leigh Diffey is set to replace Allen, who is still set to call Xfinity Series races. Whether or not a fourth individual will replace Earnhardt remains to be seen.

What the full complexion of each broadcast booth looks like beyond 2024 as NASCAR ushers in a new era of coverage in 2025 also remains to be seen, but now a key piece of the puzzle has slotted into place, with NASCAR's 15-time Most Popular Driver officially slated to return to an announcer role after taking a year off.