Dale Earnhardt Jr. will make his final Late Model Stock Car start for the 2025 season on Saturday night with the zMAX CARS Tour at North Carolina’s Tri-County Motor Speedway. Earnhardt’s start at Tri-County marks a bit of a departure from his comfort zone in regard to the type of track he’s raced since returning to Late Model racing in 2022.

The two-time Daytona 500 champion has raced at North Wilkesboro Speedway (before it was repaved), Florence Motor Speedway, Langley Speedway, Anderson Motor Speedway, and Cordele Motor Speedway. What do all of those tracks have in common? They’re shorter, flatter, and extremely abrasive. 

But Tri-County is none of those things. Tri-County is a 4/10-mile oval with a decent amount of banking. But its biggest difference from the tracks Earnhardt has previously raced on is that it’s been recently repaved. As a result, Tri-County is a “hammer-down” race track with a ton of grip and a ton of speed. It also has quite a few different lines drivers can take through the corners.

A year ago, Earnhardt told FloRacing that the “hammer-down” type of short track racing wasn’t exactly what he was interested in doing.

“I don’t enjoy, at my age and with what I’ve got going on in my life, to get in a car and have to run as hard as you can and run (qualifying) laps every lap for the race where there’s not really a whole lot of fall-off,” Earnhardt explained. “It’s just not that interesting to me. Now, I love watching it. I like watching other people do it. But for me as a driver, I think that since I don’t run every week and I’m handicapped a little bit honestly with my experience in these cars, (the abrasive tracks) are the tracks where I give myself a chance. I do like the older surfaces because I feel like I can take care of it and it gives me a lot of time to learn in the race. I think if we go to Dominion or South Boston and we’re down on speed and I’m down on speed, it’s hard to make that up.”

But while Earnhardt said back then that it wasn’t something he was interested in at the time, he also was quick to point out that he’d probably give it a shot at least once in the future.

“I’m sure I’ll bite the bullet and go do it one day,” Earnhardt said. “I’m sure I’ll say ‘We’re gonna go try it and see how tough it is’ on these newer surfaces.”

Now that day has come for the NASCAR Hall of Famer to try a Late Model Stock Car race on Tri-County’s newer racing surface. And fortunately, he’s already turned some laps there.

Earlier this year, Earnhardt Jr. took part in the filming of a music video for multi-platinum country music artist Luke Combs, which was entirely filmed on property at Tri-County Motor Speedway. The song is titled “Back in the Saddle” and it prominently featured the race track itself, as well as Earnhardt’s No. 8 Late Model Stock Car, and also featured a cameo from “The King” Richard Petty.

Race fans can watch Dale Earnhardt Jr. take on Tri-County Motor Speedway for the first time on Saturday, October 4 live on FloRacing by clicking here.