Bristol Motor Speedway officials announced today that Trea’zur Cassidy, Piney Flats, Tenn., and Hannah Kelsheimer, Oswego, Ill., are the joint winners of the Dale Earnhardt Jr. Scholarship for 2024. Both students will be honored during pre-race ceremonies prior to the green flag for the Food City 300 NASCAR Xfinity Series race on Friday, Sept. 20. They will walk across the pre-race stage, wave to the crowd, and each will receive a check for $2,088 and a commemorative plaque.
As a special treat this year for the sponsorship winners, Dale Earnhardt Jr. will be competing in the Food City 300 (7:30 p.m., The CW and PRN Radio), his second consecutive race appearance at Bristol Motor Speedway since he retired from full-time driving in 2017.
Cassidy, a senior at Science Hill High School in Johnson City, Tenn., is interested in pursuing a career in communications, either in journalism, advertising or film production. She is currently involved at LXI, a Christ-centered after-school program for teens, and she also works part-time at Chuck E. Cheese restaurant. She is active in various programs at Science Hill, including serving as “Toppy” the mascot for the school and also participating in the Showstoppers theatre program. She says she was truly inspired after recently participating in the Upward Bound program at East Tennessee State University.
“My interest in communications relies on the passion I have to serve and help people,” Cassidy says. “I love working with people whether it’s throwing kids birthday parties or serving the elderly. I enjoy building relationships with people from all walks of life.”
Kelsheimer attends the University of Northwestern Ohio (UNOH) where she is a motorsports marketing major. She is interested in pursuing a career in professional motorsports, working in social media or as a digital content creator for drivers, tracks or race sponsors. This past May, Kelsheimer worked the Indy 500 as part of her college program. She currently runs social media accounts on Facebook and Instagram for the UNOH Motorsports Team. She is also serving as vice president of the UNOH chapter of the American Marketing Association. She has also worked on social media projects at Flat Rock Speedway in Carleton, Mich., and also for the Dutch Boy 150 at World Wide Technology Raceway near St. Louis in the ARCA Menards East Series.
“I thoroughly enjoy crafting content in the world of motorsports and seeing the positive reactions from fans online that brings good publicity to our race teams,” Kelsheimer said. “I also enjoy event planning and traveling to different tracks to see all the sponsor booths and displays so I can be inspired with new ideas. I would love to work for a NASCAR or IndyCar team or track and work in the areas of marketing, branding, messaging and content.”
Created by Bristol Motor Speedway in 2017 as a retirement gift to Earnhardt Jr., the annual scholarship awards the winning student a one-time payment of $2,088 to assist with all college costs including tuition, housing, books and supplies. Past winners of the BMS Dale Earnhardt Jr. Scholarship are Jaicee Weaver (2018) and Jace Ketron (2019), both of Tennessee High School in Bristol, Tenn., UNOH student Caleb James Cate (2021) from Knoxville, Tenn., John Clavier of Elizabethton High School and UNOH student Chloe Holman of Essex, Mo. (2022), and the 2023 winners were Jamie Sullivan of UNOH and Caleb Kent of Happy Valley High School in Watauga, Tenn.
In order to be eligible, students must be a senior at one of the 21 designated high schools or attending one of the eight designated colleges and universities in the Appalachian Highlands region surrounding Bristol Motor Speedway or a student at the speedway’s official partnering institution, UNOH in Lima, Ohio.
The 21 designated high schools were Abingdon High School; Chuckey-Doak High School; Cloudland High School; Daniel Boone High School; David Crockett High School; Dobyns-Bennett High School; Elizabethton High School; Greeneville High School; Hampton High School; Happy Valley High School; Holston High School; John S. Battle High School; North Greene High School; Patrick Henry High School; Tennessee High School; Science Hill High School; South Greene High School; Sullivan East High School; Virginia High School; West Greene High School and West Ridge High School.
The nine designated higher educational institutions were East Tennessee State University; Emory & Henry College; King University; Milligan University; Northeast State Technical Community College; Tennessee College of Applied Technology, Elizabethton; Tusculum University; the University of Virginia’s College at Wise and the University of Northwestern Ohio.
One of the most iconic racecar drivers of all time and a member of the NASCAR Hall of Fame, Earnhardt Jr. owns multi-media company Dirty Mo Media and hosts The Dale Jr. Download, a weekly interview program focused on motorsports. For six seasons Earnhardt served as a racing analyst for NBC and in 2025 he will return to the booth for NASCAR Cup Series racing for Amazon Prime and TNT Sports.
Voted by fans as NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver for an unprecedented 15 consecutive years (2003-17), Earnhardt, a 26-time winner in the NASCAR Cup Series including two Daytona 500s, is a third-generation driver who followed his legendary father Dale Earnhardt Sr., and his grandfather, Ralph Earnhardt, into the sport. As a team owner, Earnhardt founded and oversees JR Motorsports, which fields four full-time entries in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.
Earnhardt Jr.’s only Bristol victory in the Cup Series came in the 2004 Night Race in dramatic fashion by sweeping the weekend and then he famously declared, “It’s Bristol, Baby!” in Victory Lane following the win. Last year, Earnhardt Jr. thrilled fans by contending for the victory in the Food City 300 till late in the race. A short in a wire ended his night after he led 47 laps and ran up front most of the night. Earlier this year he announced that he is returning this season to compete in the Food City 300 once again.
America’s Night Race weekend begins with Ben Rhodes and defending winner Corey Heim battling for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory Thursday night in the UNOH 200 presented by Ohio Logistics (Sept. 19, 8 p.m., FS1, MRN Radio). The rising stars in the ARCA Menards Series, including rising stars William Sawalich and Connor Zilisch and former IndyCar racer Marco Andretti, also will take on the challenging half-mile bullring in the Bush’s Beans 200 as part of a titan Thursday night doubleheader (Sept. 19, 5 p.m., FS1, MRN Radio).
On Friday, Sparks are sure to fly in the Food City 300, as Earnhardt Jr. will be challenged by NASCAR Xfinity Series favorites Justin Allgaier, Austin Hill, Cole Custer, Sheldon Creed and Riley Herbst in the Xfinity Series regular season finale (Sept. 20, 7:30 p.m., The CW, PRN Radio).
Finally, the stars of the NASCAR Cup Series will take to the track on Saturday for the Bass Pro Shops Night Race (Sept. 21, 7:30 p.m., USA Network, PRN Radio), you’ll get to see all of your favorite drivers like Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano and Tyler Reddick racing hard in the Round of 16 to advance in the first elimination race of the Playoffs.
To purchase tickets, please visit www.bristolmotorspeedway.com or call the BMS Ticket Sales Center at (866) 415-4158. Fans can also purchase tickets at any Food City location through Sept. 13.
