NBC Just Made A Massive Mistake With NASCAR Icon Dale Earnhardt Jr.

If you're flipping channels this summer looking for Dale Earnhardt Jr. calling a NASCAR race on NBC, you're gonna be looking for a while …

In a stunningly bad blunder by the folks over on that Peacock station, Earnhardt Jr. will no longer be part of NBC's NASCAR coverage, according to The Athletic's Andrew Marchand. 

Instead, Junior – the most popular NASCAR entity on the planet – will take the year off and then join racing newcomers Amazon Prime Video and Warner Bros. Discovery Sports next summer. 

Talk about a racing red flag!

Dale Earnhardt Jr. leaving NBC for Amazon is a huge deal moving forward 

Look, I know I work for FOX, so this will come off as plucking some low-hanging fruit …

… but this is just an awful, awful fumble by NBC. You don't let Dale Earnhardt Jr. walk away. Sorry, but you just don't. 

Not when NASCAR TV ratings are already so hard to come by, especially when the playing field is only expanding. 

Don't forget, starting next season, it's not just FOX and NBC broadcasting NASCAR races anymore. 

Instead, you're gonna have to pay close attention to that TV Guide channel starting in June, because we're gonna be dragged all over the digital map. 

NASCAR struck a nearly $8 billion TV deal with four partners late last year, which will begin in 2025. 

FOX will still have the first 14 races of the Cup season, but instead of then handing coverage off to NBC, the next 10 races during the summer will be aired on either Amazon Prime or TNT (which is part of WBD Sports). 

After that, NBC will return and air all playoff races in the fall. 

You get all that? Me neither. 

Anyway, Dale Earnhardt Jr. – an NBC staple since retiring from full-time Cup racing in 2017 – will now apparently be joining the summer broadcasting booths over on Amazon and WBD Sports. 

What the rest of those booths look like, I have no idea. Those details aren't out yet, and I'm not sure that they exist. 

But, frankly, it doesn't matter. Amazon and WBD/TNT already have their headliner. Their main event. Their Taylor Swift. 

Getting Dale Earnhardt Jr. brings instant credibility to the NASCAR newcomers, and instantly hurts NBC. 

Good for FOX, though. And good for the radio dials – because I'd imagine plenty of folks will be turning them back on when they don't hear Junior this summer.