Dale Earnhardt Jr. will return to Bristol Motor Speedway this weekend, but not in the manner one might expect.
The Hendrick Motorsports driver will serve as the guest picker on ESPN's "College GameDay" football show Saturday morning, which is being broadcast in advance of Saturday night's "Battle at Bristol" college football game between the University of Tennessee and Virginia Tech.
Prior to the day's games kicking off at noon ET, Earnhardt Jr. will join hosts Rece Davis, Kirk Herbstreit, Lee Corso and others for a roundtable prediction of the day's big games.
"The Battle at Bristol is something we've been anticipating for a long time, and I'm fortunate to be invited by Goodyear to participate in ESPN's College GameDay broadcast," Earnhardt Jr. said. "I'm sure it will be a crazy college atmosphere, especially around the GameDay set, and I look forward to having this new experience at a familiar place."
Hendrick Motorsports announced last week that Earnhardt would miss the rest of the 2016 season as he recovers from the effects of a concussion.
This is perfect timing for NASCAR fans -- watch Junior in the morning, then catch the final regular-season race at Richmond International Raceway later that evening (7:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).