MOORESVILLE, N.C. (July 24, 2017) – Dale Earnhardt Jr. has answered another big question about his life after stepping away from full-time NASCAR Cup Series racing. He’ll still be at the track, but instead of standing on the gas, he’ll be standing in the TV booth with NBC Sports.

It was announced earlier today that the 42-year-old third-generation NASCAR superstar had joined NBC Sports Group’s NASCAR coverage in 2018. His duties have not been finalized as yet, only that he will “be utilized in a number of capacities,” but his agreement with NBCUniversal allows him plenty of latitude to take part in NBC’s media businesses. Those include movies, television, podcasts and other areas, and NBC is also partnering with Earnhardt on some of his other businesses, including Dirty Mo Media and Hammerhead Entertainment.

While all that is in the future, Earnhardt Jr. will be able to be at the track on a weekly basis throughout the final 20 weeks of the NASCAR season, which is what he wanted all along.

“I am really excited to finally be able to announce this news,” Earnhardt Jr. said during a teleconference earlier this afternoon. “A lot of folks have been asking me what the next step was, and it’s a thrill for me to be able to partner with NBC. I have a lot of respect for Sam and his team and what they accomplish every weekend in the product they produce for the fans.

“Growing up around the sport and having admiration for a lot of the folks that are in media today and have come and gone from it, I’m very excited to step into that realm and learn what I can, and try to continue to further the sport. It’s going to be a lot of fun for me, and I’m thrilled to be with NBC and part of the team. I am definitely looking forward to next season and glad to be able to finally share it with everyone.”

This announcement started to take shape after he had made the decision to leave full-time racing at the end of the 2017 season, Earnhardt Jr. said.

“Obviously, I put a lot of thought into my future personally, but we really didn’t sit down and start to consider what that might look like until I made and announced the decision to retire from driving. Once I was able to do that and share that with everyone, we started to talk with Sam and his team about what there might be, if they had any interest in working together. The deal just got done in the last couple of days.”

While his duties are not yet set in stone and his contract does not start until Jan. 1, 2018, there was plenty of excitement from Mark Lazarus, chairman of NBC Broadcasting and Sports, and Sam Flood, NBC Sports’ executive producer and president of production.

“It’s official,” said Lazarus. “We’re thrilled to welcome Dale Earnhardt Jr. to NBC Universal and NBC Sports. As a race car driver, team owner and iconic racing figure and also as popular off the track, this permits crossover appeal across all forms of media. NBCUniversal has great assets, including sports, film and television, all of which are part of our ability to attract someone of Dale’s expertise in sports and interests in other forms of media to get him to join our team.”

Flood was excited to have the 14-time NASCAR Most Popular Driver on his team going forward.

“(Earnhardt Jr.) is clearly the star of his generation and the Most Popular Driver vote has been his...they might as well retire the award when he retires after this season,” Flood said. “His love of the sport and passion for the history of the sport makes him a unique talent, and he looks at it in a different way. The conversation we had was how to grow NASCAR, how to expose new fans and how to make his passion for the sport come through to the fans.”

The decision to leave the cockpit and transition to the broadcast side was a natural fit for Earnhardt Jr., and there were plenty of interested parties where he could ply his new trade. NBCUniversal won out in the end, because of the variety of its offerings, which include the National Football League and the Olympics.

“We’ve talked about football, talked about the Olympics, talked about other parts of the company, but I could see him being involved if it’s the right fit for him and for us,” Flood said. “We’re not going to say, ‘hey, you’re going to go off and do a feature on football.’ We’re going to say, ‘does this make sense for both sides to get you involved in something, whether it be the Super Bowl, the Olympics...there are a lot of speed events in the Olympics which could be an interesting match for Dale,’ but there’s nothing locked in stone. It’s all about opportunity and the breadth of what we can do as a company, and I think that is the most important part of what we have established with this partnership.”

One of the parts of the partnership that is unique is the inclusion of Dirty Mo Media and Hammerhead Entertainment.

“This is an incredible opportunity for me to start a new chapter,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “It’s basically an entire new career. One of the exciting things about the conversations I had with NBC was their interest in incorporating our Dirty Mo Media and Hammerhead production company into a lot of the things that we’ll do together. That gives those two businesses the opportunity to not only survive, but to grow.”

Being on TV is not a new experience for Earnhardt Jr., but it is a new role for him. Comfort with his teammates, which will include fellow drivers Dale Jarrett, Kyle Petty and Jeff Burton and his former crew chief Steve Letarte, was a big factor in his decision to switch to television.

“That was a key factor for me,” he said. “Everywhere that I’ve had success before, I’ve always had that great friendship with the people I worked with, a very comfortable environment for me personally, and that influenced me quite a bit. Sam was incredibly honest, and what I’ve learned about him over the last several months is, you know where you stand with him. Those sorts of personal connections I think were important for me, and NBC certainly laid a lot of opportunity on the table, and they showed a lot of encouragement and excitement about the opportunity to work together. It seemed like a very good fit for me and something I would be very comfortable with.”