Earnhardt Jr. to not retire completely

Dale Jr. at Sonoma Friday

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During a question-and-answer session with reporters after opening practice at Sonoma Raceway, Dale Earnhardt Jr. said he might consider an encore appearance in the Daytona 500 under the right circumstances even though he is retiring from full-time driving after this year.

"Well, you never say never," Earnhardt said. "I'm just retiring from full-time racing. I'm going to run some XFINITY races next year. I don't know that I won't ever run the Daytona 500 again, if the right deal comes along. All these tracks you have memories at, all of them, Daytona included.

"I'm going to be coming back to these tracks, and I want to continue to be part of the sport. I don't know how it's going to affect me really. It's hard for me to put that into words, because I don't know what that is going to feel like. It will be pretty weird I think to come back to the 500. I'm going to go to the 500 whether I've got any work to do or not. It will be pretty weird to be there and not race."