Fans coming to Bristol Motor Speedway in March for the NASCAR events will have two opportunities to see NASCAR’s most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr., race on the World’s Fastest Half-Mile.

Earnhardt Jr., who swept both the Busch Series and the Nextel Cup events at Bristol in August of 2004, will try to repeat that feat as he’ll be competing in the Sharpie MINI 300 on Saturday, March 24, as well as the Food City 500 on Sunday, March 25.

Not only will Junior be racing in the Busch Series event, he’ll be driving the No. 8 Sharpie car as Sharpie, a Newell Rubbermaid company, will sponsor his Chevrolet at BMS.

Earnhardt Jr. is looking forward to getting back to Bristol, which draws the largest crowds in the sport for Busch Series events. Since August of 1999, Bristol Motor Speedway has sold more than 100,000 tickets to 16 consecutive Busch Series events.

“I have a sincere appreciation for short track racing, because it’s where I came from. It’s where most of us came from,” he said. ”Bristol is probably the toughest track on the circuit for me so I consider it a pretty big accomplishment to win there.”

Since making his Bristol debut in the Busch Series in August of 1997, Earnhardt Jr. has competed in seven Busch races and has two runner-up showings to go along with his win and an average finish of 7.4.

Practice for both the Sharpie MINI 300 and the Food City 500, where the Car of Tomorrow debuts and becomes of the car of today, will take place on Friday, March 23. Qualifying for the Food City 500 is set for 3:45 on Friday while qualifying for the Sharpie MINI 300 takes place on Saturday at 11:10 a.m. The race takes the green flag later that afternoon at 3 p.m. The Food City 500 is Sunday with a 2 p.m. start time.