Dale Earnhardt Jr. may be in the booth now, but he can't seem to stay away from a little on-track action.

Next up, the fan favorite will find himself driving the 2019 Chevrolet Silverado pace truck to lead the field to green for the 61st running of Daytona 500 in February 2019. This is the first time the Daytona 500 will be paced by a pickup truck.

“I’ve had a lot of fun and a lot of success at Daytona over the years, and now I can’t wait to get out on that track in a Silverado,” said Earnhardt Jr. “Away from the track I’ve driven Chevy trucks all my life, and I’m excited to have this unique experience of pacing the Daytona 500 with the Silverado.” 

Earnhardt won two Daytona 500s and two July races at Daytona in his career. He has 13 top-5 finishes and 19 top-10s in 36 Cup Series career starts at Daytona.

“Dale Earnhardt Jr. was the perfect choice to pace the race because of his enthusiasm for the sport, his long history with Chevrolet and his love of trucks,” said Jim Campbell, Chevrolet U.S. vice president of Performance Vehicles and Motorsports. “It’ll be exciting to have Dale lead the field to green in the strongest, most advanced Silverado ever.”

The Silverado pace truck is powered by a production 6.2L V-8 engine paired with a 10-speed automatic transmission. It delivers 420 horsepower and 460 lb-ft of torque. Chevrolet has paced the Daytona 500 12 times, seven with Camaro and five with Corvette.

As we celebrate Thanksgiving Day, I’m thankful for a lot this year.

Some of those things are personal, others are professional and some involve the sport I’ve loved, followed and written about for more than half my life.

With the season wrapped up and Joey Logano having claimed his first title after a thrilling win at Homestead, here are some of the things I’m thankful for in the NASCAR world.

An exciting end to the season
I’ll start out by saying that anyone unhappy with the current playoff system, and still clinging to the old full-season points battle that was often decided before the final race was even run, is either fooling themselves or just plain unable to be happy with anything NASCAR does.

The playoffs were especially successful this year, full of exciting races and ending up with the four most deserving drivers battling for the title. We talked about the Big 3 all year, and there they were at Homestead. Joey Logano proved to be the best of the rest, and in a testament to the true fairness of the system, the guy who many fans said didn’t deserve to be there took home the crown.

In sports, going the extra mile to win should be applauded.

That could apply to an MLB outfielder stretching out for an unbelievable catch, an NFL runner shedding that one final block to reach the end zone, and many other scenarios.

One of those other scenarios, in the world of NASCAR, is executing the perfect bump-and-run to get a win at Martinsville and punch your ticket to Homestead, like Joey Logano did Sunday.

It was a brilliant move, executed by a driver who has never shied away from doing what it takes to win the race, and it was a move everyone should have anticipated, given what was on the line. Now, instead of heading into the next two races just above the cut line, Joey Logano is in the Final Four. He’s racing for a title at Homestead and can breathe easy the next two weeks (though I’m sure he’ll try to win those races too, being the competitor he is).

Denny Hamlin, who won the pole for today’s race at MIS with a lap of 210.590 mph, was happy to see some positive results after a bit of a rough stretch. He won all three segments of qualifying on Friday, and was seventh in final practice.

“These guys are really stepping up and we’re starting to make a little hay now. We love to see results when you work so hard,” Hamlin said. “The toughest part is when you work really hard and you don’t get the results and really we had unfortunate circumstances happen to us last weekend with that stop, but overall just been so happy with our performance.”

As far as the race, Hamlin knows he has to approach things a bit more measured than in qualifying.

“We have to get it driving just like it is right now – consistent and easy to drive at this point. You have to make sure you have that same sustainability in race trim for 200 laps around here.”

BROOKLYN, Mich. -- If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times: The Truck Series produces the best races in NASCAR, hands-down.

Competition is always strong, both up front and throughout the field, and you never know what is going to happen.

Such was the case Saturday at Michigan International Speedway, where Brett Moffitt pulled deja vu and once again did a last-lap pass to win the Corrigan Oil 200.

His margin of Victory: 0.025 seconds. He led only five laps all race, including the most important one.