Dale Earnhardt Jr. wants to try NASCAR truck race against Jeff Gordon
Dale Earnhardt Jr. officially retired from full-time NASCAR Cup Series racing at the end of the 2017 season in November, but he's not totally done on the track.
He's planning on driving in a couple second-tier XFINITY Series races later this season for his own team, JR Motorsports, but now he says he'd consider getting behind the wheel of a truck at some point.
Despite his two decades in NASCAR, Earnhardt never raced in a Camping World Truck Series, and this week on NBC, he said he might like to try it just once, specifically at the .526-mile track at Martinsville Speedway.
When it was suggested that he and fellow retired superstars Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart enter a truck race at either Martinsville or Bristol Motor Speedway, Junior turned down the ideal of doing it at Bristol. But he explained:
"I've always loved Martinsville, and the truck race at Martinsville would probably be the one that I would be most excited about running, if I was to run a truck. No plans to run a truck, but I wouldn't mind running a truck race once, just to say, 'Hey, I know what a truck drives like.'
"Martinsville, man, that's where it's at. Jeff Gordon loves Martinsville, so I know he'd be in for that."
While this may seem far-fetched, it's not. Earnhardt likes to try new things, so even in his retirement as a full-time driver, he might still experiment with something new on the track.
There's no word on whether Stewart would consider this - though he still runs in smaller races - but Gordon seems pretty open to it. Earlier this year, the driver-turned-commentator for FOX Sports said he'd be willing to try a truck race on a short track, like Martinsville.
Gordon dropped a hint in February:
"I always thought about maybe looking at an opportunity to drive a truck at Martinsville or a track like that. I like the short tracks."
Both Earnhardt and Gordon were clear they have no plans to make this happen, but if they could pull teams together for the same Martinsville truck race - like the Texas Roadhouse 200 in October - NASCAR fans would go wild for it.
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