North Wilkesboro Speedway is back. And so is Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Earnhardt Jr. announced Tuesday that he will drive a JR Motorsports late model Chevrolet in the scheduled CARS Tour race at NWS Aug. 31.
The car will be numbered 3 and will carry sponsorship from long-time Earnhardt family associate Sun Drop.
“I came to North Wilkesboro so many times as a kid,” Earnhardt Jr. said in a team release. “It’s a special place. I never thought I’d get a chance to race around here again. To put this program together with Sun Drop, who sponsored my late model in ’93, I wouldn’t want it any other way. They were with my dad for years and one of my first sponsors.”
Earnhardt Jr., now a NASCAR analyst for NBC Sports, raced a Sun Drop-sponsored late model at NWS and in other late model events in 1993.
After being closed for many years, North Wilkesboro Speedway, located in the Brushy Mountains of North Carolina, has reopened this month in a long-anticipated “racetrack revival.” Earnhardt Jr. has been instrumental in the track’s return to racing.
Carson Kvapil is scheduled to drive a JR Motorsports No. 8 Chevrolet in the Aug. 31 race.
