It’s hard to believe that Dale Earnhardt Jr. is doing something for the first time, but on July 20 he will take on Virginia’s Langley Speedway for the very first time in a bid to win the Hampton Heat 200. 

Earnhardt announced the news on Monday afternoon via X (formerly Twitter) that he will make his Langley Speedway debut in the Hampton Heat 200, the middle leg of the Virginia Triple Crown. 

Though the Hampton Heat will be Earnhardt’s first race at Langley, it will be his third Late Model Stock Car race of the 2024 season. Earnhardt finished fourth in this year’s Icebreaker at Florence Motor Speedway back in February. Earnhardt also made his New River All-American Speedway debut in April with the CARS Tour where he finished 14th after getting caught in a crash with Landon Huffman.

This announcement comes after the NASCAR Hall of Famer had previously announced that he’d be racing with the CARS Tour at Florence on August 30.

Looking forward to running the Hampton Heat @LangleySpeedway. See ya there. pic.twitter.com/IuNBg2jROj

— Dale Earnhardt Jr. (@DaleJr) June 24, 2024

The two-time Daytona 500 champion explained earlier this year that he enjoys racing on extremely worn-out and abrasive surfaces, something that the coastal Virginia track definitely offers. Langley Speedway is known for having one of the most abrasive surfaces in the Southeast region, which produces races full of tire conservation.

But on top of the tire conservation, Langley also just produced the closest finish in CARS Tour history earlier this month when Connor Hall beat Brent Crews to the win by 0.007-second in a three-wide photo finish with Crews and Carson Kvapil.

Race fans that cannot make it to Langley Speedway to watch Earnhardt race in person can still watch the race live on FloRacing as part of a FloRacing subscription. Fans can subscribe to FloRacing by clicking here.