Dale Jr. returns to race at Richmond, but will it be his last race?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. left the door cracked open for racing beyond Friday night’s GoBowling 250 at Richmond Raceway in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. In a spontaneous Q&A with fans on Twitter, Earnhardt responded to a question about whether Friday (7:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) would be his final race. RELATED: Schedule for Richmond | Xfinity entry list | Dale Jr.: Richmond may be last race Earnhardt said he’d only run races for JR Motorsports that involve sponsorship packages that help fund races for the other four teams. He went on to say when the team runs five cars in a given week, it stretches the company thin. Earnhardt is running in this weekend’s NASCAR Playoffs opener in Xfinity because, as he said, it was part of an agreement with Unilever and Hellmanns that he do so; an agreement that was in place before he decided to walk away from full-time racing after the 2017 season. RELATED: Breaking down the Xfinity Playoffs field | Dale Jr. through the years Sweetening the scene for Junior fans is that he’ll have his old spotter back this weekend, TJ Majors, who currently spots for the No. 22 Team Penske Ford driven by Joey Logano in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. Junior told a fan he got permission from Roger Penske, himself, for Majors to spot this week. But as for Steve Letarte stepping in as Junior’s crew chief? That won’t be happening, Junior says, because of Letarte’s commitments to broadcasting for NBC Sports. However, although the band won’t be totally back together, we wouldn’t bet against Letarte dialing up Junior for an in-car interview or two.