Dale Earnhardt Jr. has enjoyed his time with NBC but revealed on his podcast that he’s not currently under contract to call NASCAR races this season. On the Feb. 6 edition of The Dale Jr. Download, Earnhardt Jr. said his contract with NBC expired at the end of last season and is still being negotiated.
“My contract with NBC is up,” Earnhardt said on the Dale Jr Download via Sportsnaut. “It was up at the end of last year. I’m currently working through what that looks like for me. I definitely love being in the broadcast booth and want to continue doing that.”
Last season, Earnhardt Jr. called both NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series races for NBC, but the latter isn’t long for NBC’s channels. Starting in 2025, The CW will exclusively air NASCAR Xfinity Series races, meaning Earnhardt would only have NBC’s Cup Series races to call.
A return to FOX isn’t out of the question, as it currently owns the exclusive rights to the NASCAR Truck Series as well as many major Cup Series races. However, FOX recently added former NASCAR Cup winner Kevin Harvick to its broadcast team, so Earnhardt may have to join a panel or be relegated to a secondary team.
There’s also the prospect of Earnhardt heading to Prime Video, which will also begin broadcasting NASCAR races in 2025. Prime Video often looks for major talent for its in-game analysis, as evidenced by bringing on Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit for Thursday Night Football, and Earnhardt would be a similar level splash should Prime decide to go that route.
“We’ve had some great conversations with all of NASCAR’s TV partners. My home and my love is at NBC and I’d love to be back with them so we’ll see where it goes. But right now, I really don’t have a job in terms of broadcasting.”
NBCUniversal’s NASCAR season begins on June 30 with the NASCAR Cup Series Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway.
