Earnhardt excited for his debut as TV analyst

CHICAGO – Dale Earnhardt Jr., retired race car driver and new father, takes on another title this weekend: TV star.

Earnhardt will join NBC Sports and its coverage of NASCAR at Chicagoland Speedway, stepping into the broadcast booth with Rick Allen, Jeff Burton and Steve Letarte, his former crew chief.

NBC has invested a lot of time and money in promoting Junior’s arrival as one of its racing analysts. He is expected to provide a new perspective on ontrack activity and could juice NBC’s viewership numbers considerably.

Earnhardt and his “teammates,” as he referred to them, have been doing mock broadcasts in preparation for the opener of NBC’s coverage.

“We’ve been practicing, and here it is, it’s time to get to work, and we’re going to have a great first weekend to kick off the next several trips to the racetrack, and it’s going to be an awesome run all the way to Homestead,” Earnhardt said Thursday.

He said he plans to “be himself ” during broadcasts, following the advice of producer Sam Flood.

“I keep asking him if that’s really what he wants, because that sounds a little bit too good to be true and a little bit too easy,” Earnhardt said. “But that’s what they expect out of you, and that should be very fun, to get up there and just watch races and react.

“All the guys in the booth are such huge fans of what we’re seeing, it’s going to be a lot of fun just doing that, sit- ting around and talking about what’s happening on the racetrack. I’m excited to learn a lot and get to know my teammates even better.”