Dale Earnhardt Jr. on NASCAR Races: 'I Don’t Know How Many More of These I’ll Do'

NASCAR veteran Dale Earnhardt Jr. has been semi-retired from racing since 2017, but he revealed he may have participated in his final race. 

Earnhardt, 45, raced Saturday in the Xfinity Series at Homestead-Miami Speedway, his first since appearance since August 2019 at Darlington. Following his fifth-place finish, the veteran driver said he is unsure if he will appear in another NASCAR race. 

"I don't know how many more of these I'll do," Earnhardt said after the race. "This might be the last one. This ain't no tease or anything. I'm not trying to be annoying about that. It's just a lot of commitment and I don't know. It's getting to the point where I've got to decide whether I'm helping things or I'm not helping the team, can I help the team in other ways."

Since he retired as a full-time driver, Earnhardt has continued to participate in the Xfinity Series each year with top-five finishes in his last three starts. His final NASCAR Cup race came at Homestead-Miami Speedway in November 2017. 

Earnhardt revealed he was "really, really nervous" before Saturday's race, and while his anxiety was lessened when he got into the car, he had worked himself up over the previous 72 hours.

"I just have to think about it," Earnhardt said. "I certainly don't want to run more (than one Xfinity race a year). One's plenty and it's a great series, but we'll just see how it goes. I guess it's a tough question to answer and I'm sorry about that."

While he has raced part-time with the Xfinity Series, Earnhardt has spent time as an analyst and hosts a podcast. He is among 15 nominees for the 2021 NASCAR Hall of Fame class, which will be revealed on June 16. 

"I've said this from the start, and really feel it in my heart, everybody on that list belongs in there and it doesn't seem at this point that there's one more deserving than the another," Earnhardt said. "To that respect, I'm young enough to wait my turn. And there's a lot of names that are not on that list that need to be on that list. We're all going to argue that every year."

Earnhardt added that he has never been "more proud of the leadership" in NASCAR since the organization decided to ban the Confederate flag from all events. 

"We've had a lot of uncertainty with our leadership," Earnhardt said. "There's been some changes at the top over the last couple years. And now when we get into these moments when our society is looking for change, I love what I'm seeing out of the leadership in our sport to be a part of that change."

Earnhardt is a two-time Daytona 500 winner and the son of NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Sr.