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Dale Earnhardt Jr. Reacts To Big NASCAR Return News

Originally posted on The Spun | By Tzvi Machlin | Last updated Jun 12, 2025 6:51 PM ET

An iconic car company is poised to make its return to NASCAR racing in the very near future and Dale Earnhardt Jr. is excited for it.

This week Ram announced that it intends to return to NASCAR for the first time in over a decade. FOX motorsports insider Bob Pockrass reported that Dodge's Ram brand will enter the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in 2026 and potentially enter the Cup Series in 2027 or later (likely later).

"We're looking for a date to the prom right now [for trucks]," Ram CEO Tim Kinuskis said in an announcement. "So how am I going to get the Cup? That's going to depend on how I get to truck. So however we get to truck is going will obviously weigh heavily on do I have a path to Cup?

"Our intention is not to do a one-hit wonder and go to truck and not to Cup. That's not our plan."

The brand intends to mark its return with around four to six trucks competing in the 2026 season opener at Daytona International Speedway.

On the latest episode of the Dale Jr. Download, Earnhardt said that he knows the brand's goal is to get back into the Cup Series. He believes that they may have to develop their cars through the Xfinity Series first before getting to the Cup Series though.

“They want to go Cup racing,” Dale Earnhardt Jr. said. “They’re not coming to the Truck Series just to run trucks. Be curious to see what, if anything, they do in the Xfinity Series. I think the Xfinity Series is going through an evolution anyways. They may pause on that to kind of see where the Xfinity Series is in five years. What’s its identity? What even type of vehicles are we racing? They might just do trucks and Cup only.”

Back in the day, the Ram Pickup truck was a force to be reckoned with the Craftsman Truck Series. Between 2001 and 2004, Ram won the manufacturer's championship three times.

“For more than a decade, customers and our dealer network asked about getting back into NASCAR. The desire was always there, but we didn’t have a plan that delivered the last tenth and following just didn’t fit our DNA,” Kuniskis said. “Now we have a solid plan that will set us apart from the field and will bring fresh new interest and engagement to America’s Motorsport.”

This article first appeared on The Spun and was syndicated with permission.

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