Dale Earnhardt Jr. to make Pro Late Model debut at Florence

Dale Earnhardt Jr. will make his Pro Late Model debut on Friday night in the CARS Tour event at Florence Motor Speedway in a No. 23 GMS Race Cars machine.

It will be the first time that he has driven a straight rail Late Model as both versions of his short track career came in perimeter rail Late Model Stock Cars. The start reunites him with first cousin Tony Eury Jr., who is now the Director of Chassis Development at GMS Race Cars.

Both Tony Jr. and Sr. are involved at GMS, allowing Earnhardt to race alongside both of his crew chiefs at the Dale Earnhardt Inc. No. 8 team in the NASCAR Cup Series.

“Tony Jr. was at FURY and now he’s at GMS and they’re building these great cars and they have this new chassis, and they’ve been racing ‘em all across the country,” Earnhardt said on Tuesday during his Dale Jr. Download podcast.

The race will also be notable from that standpoint in that Earnhardt and the Eurys will race against a team owned by their front tire changer from that era in DJ Copp, who has recently built a car for Bayley Currey.

Earnhardt said he felt like he hadn’t raced enough this year and upon finishing his broadcast schedule at Prime and Turner Sports, didn’t want to wait to race in his only planned Late Model Stock start in the CARS Tour event at Newport Speedway in October.

“We put a car together and we’re going to give it a shot,” Earnhardt said. “I think Tony Sr. is going to come out. Kind of like a family reunion. He said ‘what do you want it to look like’ and I said ‘don’t care’ and ‘don’t even put my name on it’ Let’s just show up and drive it.”

If this goes well, Earnhardt is eyeing a start in a Super Late Model, potentially out west in a CARS Tour West race alongside Kevin Harvick.