Jeffrey Earnhardt

This team enjoyed a lot of success last season under the guidance of driver, Kaz Grala. The journeyman driver racked up nine Top-10 finishes and wound up a very respectable 17th in the final driver standings. Grala will not be returning in 2024, but Sam Hunt Racing has stated they are committed to running two full-time cars in the upcoming season. This could mean a late free-agent driver signing for SHR or they could put a patchwork of multiple drivers together to fill out the season. The former would be preferable with some decent drivers still available on the free agent market, while a driver rotation would be less desirable. Watch this team closely in January as the season approaches. Their driver signing will have great bearing on their outcome in 2024. Earnhardt will share this team with Corey Heim in an number of part-time starts.

Alpha Prime Racing is looking to grow and to find more consistency in 2023, so they've signed veteran Earnhardt to pilot their No. 44 entry in the upcoming campaign. This car employed multiple drivers to mixed results in 2022. They earned one Top-10 and 14 Top-20 finishes vs. 9 DNF's last year with a driver rotation that got dizzying at times. Earnhardt will hope to stabilize this team and even out their performance over the 33-race schedule. He earned one Top-5 and two Top-10 finishes last season in only a 13-start slate, so Earnhardt will be excited to return to full-time action. Alpha Prime is growing and will suffer some growing pains as a result, but Earnhardt gives them a good shot at stability behind the wheel.

Earnhardt was announced as a part-time driver of the Sam Hunt Racing Toyota in 2022. Brandon Gdovic and Santino Ferrucci would primarily split time in this car last season, but a handful of other drivers would join in to fill out the 33-race schedule. For a driving collective, they didn't do a bad job. The team would collect two Top-10 and 10 Top-15 finishes. It was a very competitive effort. Earnhardt will be primarily sharing this car with Ryan Truex in the upcoming season.

The 31-year-old veteran will move to full-time racing with JD Motorsports in 2021. Earnhardt is coming off a 29-start campaign where he collected five Top-15 finishes in a challenging season. This driver and team are still assembling sponsorship and selecting a new crew chief, but should be together in time for the season start. Earnhardt's 102-career Xfinity Series starts make him a very seasoned driver for this team, however, the lack of accomplishments over that eight seasons of racing is a bit concerning. JDM will expect Earnhardt to make some pretty major steps with this race team in 2021, but we're not completely convinced he's up to the task. The 22.7 average finish mark of last season needs a lot of work.

Earnhardt started roughly half the schedule last season, split among several different race teams. He rounded out 2018 in 10 starts with Gaunt Brothers Racing in the No. 96 Toyota. At the time of this writing that team's plans for this season haven't been announced, but it has been widely speculated that Earnhardt could return and race with them in 2019. In his part-time slate with GBR, he forged just one Top-25 finish vs. four finishes outside the Top 35. It was a challenging situation for Earnhardt and this small race team. If they resume the upcoming season with Earnhardt, it would likely be Mark Hillman calling the shots from atop the tool box.

Earnhardt was released by Circle Sport Racing at the end of last season. He's currently a free agent driver and looking for opportunities in the Cup Series in 2018.

Signed with Circle Sport – TMG Racing in early February. Looks like he’ll get most, if not the entire, season in the team’s No. 33 Chevrolet. Earnhardt has only 24 starts of Cup Series experience and not racing very competitively in those efforts. It will be a steep learning curve and big challenge for him to have much impact if he does race the full schedule. Earnhardt is a fan favorite for the obvious reason, but he’ll face a tough test with this small race team in 2017.

The youngest of the racing Earnhardts will make his move into NASCAR's top division in 2016. The son of Kerry Earnhardt and grandson of the late Dale Earnhardt will take the wheel of the No. 32 Ford of Go FAS Racing, and take on a heavy part-time schedule. It's expected to be somewhere between 20 and 32 events for the young driver. Earnhardt has 66 starts of Xfinity Series racing over the last six years, but for small ill-equipped teams. He also made just two Sprint Cup starts last season for this very same Go FAS Racing team. It's great to see another generation of the Earnhardt family make it to NASCAR's top level, but we have to be realistic about his chances to impact the series. Due to this team's small size and limited resources, the lack of experience of Earnhardt in Cup cars, the anticipated impact will be very small.

The 23-year-old son of Kerry Earnhardt will get his first taste of full-time action in the Nationwide Series this year. Earnhardt will compete for Rookie of the Year honors in the seat of GGR’s Ford Mustang. The grandson of the late Dale Earnhardt Sr. has only had 10 spot starts in this racing series over the last four years, so this season will be a crash-course in full season action. Earnhardt only managed a top finish of 21st last season, so it could be a long year competing with this small race team.