Is Dale Earnhardt Jr. racing in the Daytona 500? We let you know if Dale Earnhardt Jr. is going to take the green flag in Sunday’s 2018 Daytona 500.
With the 2018 Daytona 500 now just around the corner, NASCAR fans are still wondering: Is Dale Earnhardt Jr. going to race?
NASCAR’s favorite driver officially retired from Monster Energy Sprint Cup Series competition at the end of the 2017 season, but speculation has continued to run rampant ever since about if he could be coaxed out of retirement for another attempt at the Great American Race.
Back in July as he addressed his post-retirement plans, Dale Earnhardt Jr. left the door open for a potential 2018 Daytona 500 run.
“You never say never,” he told the media last summer, adding that he’d consider racing at Daytona International Speedway “if the right deal comes along.”
And it was hard to imagine that the right deal wouldn’t come along, considering Dale Jr.’s enduring popularity among NASCAR fans and sponsors alike — he earned 15 Most Popular Driver Awards in his full-time career, just one shy of the all-time record set by Bill Elliott.
All 15 of them were consecutive; no other driver has taken home that honorific since 2002.
But now it’s February, so is Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the Daytona 500? Surprisingly, no; he’s staying on the sidelines for Sunday’s race. No plan ever came together for him to participate in the race, with health issues a concern as well, given that Earnhardt has had multiple concussions and missed a large portion of the 2016 NASCAR season because of one.
While we won’t see Dale Earnhardt Jr. racing in the Daytona 500, you can check out the complete starting lineup for the event by clicking the link below, including Alex Bowman, who’s taking over for him in the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet and will start from the pole.
Next: Complete 2018 Daytona 500 entry list
For complete coverage of this year’s Daytona 500 and the 2018 NASCAR season, check out the NASCAR hub at FanSided.