Dale Earnhardt Jr. expresses dismay over one track in playoffs after 2025 NASCAR schedule leak

An alleged 2025 schedule leak from NASCAR earlier this week provided ample fodder for sports bloggers and prognosticators alike to break down the updated digs for the sport next season, including Dale Earnhardt Jr.

And one thing immediately stood out to the former NASCAR driver. St. Louis is in the playoffs.

“The playoffs are wild. How in the hell did St. Louis end up in the playoffs?” Earnhardt Jr. said on the Dale Jr. Download podcast. “I would love to know, I’m not … it’s bizarre. It’s fine. I mean there’s no sort of, ‘Oh you don’t deserve this’ kind of vibe, I just wonder how that even happened.”

The news is all the more shocking because of the fact that St. Louis is not a NASCAR-owned track, as Earnhardt Jr.’s cohost on the podcast pointed out. That means NASCAR bumped one of its own properties to bring St. Louis into the fold for the playoffs.

Could that be the organization vying for track ownership there in the future? That was one possibility thrown out by the Dale Jr. Download.

Still, the alleged schedule floored Earnhardt Jr. in that regard.

“I didn’t think it had a chance of getting in the playoffs ever,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “Not ever. It just still feels like it just got here in terms of the Cup Series. And now it’s in the playoffs. So I’m wondering where the, what the reasoning is, what the reasoning is why.”

NASCAR, of course, has not yet officially announced the schedule and condemned the schedule leak, saying it contained some inaccuracies. So we’ll have to wait and see for sure.

In any case, if the schedule is as reported it’ll mean some adjustments for teams going forward into the 2025 season. There seems to be a greater emphasis being placed on shoring up the short-track package in the circuit, perhaps to the detriment of a place like Richmond, which could lose its second race in 2025.