Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Still Having a Blast Even on Trying Night at Tri-County

It wasn't a picture-perfect night on Saturday at Tri-County Speedway for Dale Earnhardt, Jr., but you wouldn't know it by the smile on his face afterwards.

Earnhardt, Jr. made his fourth and final zMAX CARS Tour appearance of the 2025 season, finishing 12th in the Late Model Stock Car portion of the SoundGear 225.

RELATED: Jared Fryar, T.J. DeCaire Outlast zMAX CARS Tour Competition at Tri-County

An ill-handling race car and various dilemmas, starting with an incident in turns one and two, kept Earnhardt on his heels throughout the evening, but didn't deter his enthusiasm.

"We got into an accident over here in one and two, but really, we weren’t the race car we needed at that point either way," said Earnhardt, Jr. "The car was really loose, so we were going to have to come and work on it.

“It’s probably a good thing that the accidents and stuff happened that actually drove us to pit road so we could make some changes. I think, by the end of the night there, we had about a seventh-place car or eighth-place car. We were running down some guys in front of us and ended up 12th.

"I'll come out of here with a 12th and a smile on my face. Had a great weekend, the CARS Tour had a great weekend. We'll call it good."

It was that kind of night for the NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee. Later, he was forced to pit road with a brand-new issue, but a well-timed caution kept him on the lead lap.

“It's always fun. I had a blast. The left-front A-frame come loose at one point tonight, with like 20 laps to go," Earnhardt, Jr. explained. "All the slugs fell out of it, all the camber shams were about to come out of it. That was a major problem.

"I was going down the backstraightaway and started steering weird down the straightaway. Luckily, as soon as I was coming to the pits, I thought we were done, the caution comes out. So we come down pit road, tighten all that back up, I’m like, alright, we get to keep racing."

Ultimately, the fun factor is what keeps bringing Earnhardt, Jr. back to Late Model Stock Car events such as those in the zMAX CARS Tour. While he battled adversity throughout the night, the chance to go short-track racing kept his fire burning.

“I have a blast out there racing anybody, whether it’s for fifth or 10th or last, it doesn’t matter. I like racing, and I like running these cars."

Tri-County was a new track for Earnhardt, Jr., and that could be a sign of future plans for his Late Model endeavors.

"Sun Drop wants to sell Sun Drop up here," said Earnhardt, Jr. "They work around the Norht Carolina area and prefer us to kind of race aroudn tracks like this. I was due for a little bit of a change, try some of this high-grip stuff out and see what it was like. I liked it, I had fun.

“I’ll run three more next year, maybe four, but probably three, and we’ll see where we go," he said. "I’m gonna start moving around a little bit and run a couple of tracks that I want to run before I hang it up. I don’t know if we’ll come back to Tri-County, but we’ll see what the schedule looks like.”

While Earnhardt will not race in the season finale at North Wilkesboro Speedway, JR Motorsports will have a say in the championship conversation.

Connor Hall, driving the Late Model team's flagship No. 88, enters the final race of the season chasing Landen Lewis for the championship. Lewis dominated a crash-filled race at North Wilkesboro in the build-up to the NASCAR All-Star Race, and Earnhardt, Jr. expects more of the same from the No. 29 Kevin Harvick, Inc. team in two weeks' time.

"The 29 was awesome at Wilkesboro [in May]. I think if everything goes well for him, they should make it pretty difficult for Hall. they were so good there, and I wouldn't see why that'd be any different.

"I expect them to go to Wilkesboro and be the class of the field, and see what Hall and them boys can put together and take to the racetrack and compete. Landen's driven a good season. He's a great, great kid. He'd be a great champion and represent the CARS Tour really well."

As for next year, plans are still being hashed out for JR Motorsports in 2026. However, he hopes that Caden Kvapil figures into the team's plans, along with his one-off appearances and some Late Model races away from the CARS Tour for Wyatt Miller.

Miller, already a winner in Late Model competition at Hickory Motor Speedway, is the grandson of Dale Earnhardt, Sr. and son of Kelley Earnhardt-Miller.

"I've enjoyed working with the Kvapil family, so that will likely be a big component of what we're doing on the CARS Tour. Caden's a young driver I've got a lot of faith in and I'd love to give him an opportunity.

"We can run two cars every now and then, every so often. And we've got little Wyatt coming in. He won't run any CARS Tour races next year, but he might run some Limited stuff and Late Model stuff here, at Hickory, locally. So we'll have our hands full doing one full-time car on the CARS Tour and whatever Wyatt's doing, and I'll run my three races somewhere."

The zMAX CARS Tour finale is scheduled for Saturday, October 18 at North Wilkesboro Speedway.

-Photo credit: CARS Tour