![]() by Julian Spivey Dale Earnhardt Jr. is retiring after 18 seasons in the NASCAR Cup Series after this weekend’s season-ending race at Miami-Homestead Speedway. Earnhardt Jr. has won two Daytona 500s in his career that has seen him reach Victory Lane in NASCAR’s highest series on 26 occasions. Earnhardt Jr. has won NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver honor a record 15 straight times and won the Busch Series (NASCAR’s minor leagues) championship in back-to-back seasons in 1998 and 1999. Most importantly Earnhardt Jr. has been one of the most likable drivers and great personalities in an era that saw the sport really boom in national popularity. The sport is certainly going to miss him on the track. 10. Most Popular Driver from 2003-2017 Dale Earnhardt Jr. has set a record for NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver Award, which is a fan-voted honor, that will never be broken. When he assuredly wins the award this year it’ll be his 15th consecutive honor. Earnhardt Jr. had this thing sewn up almost from the start gaining the bulk of his father’s fanbase upon Dale Sr.’s death in 2001 and gaining millions of fans on his right through his likable personality and perseverance among tragedy. It’ll be interesting to see which driver takes the torch from Dale Jr. as “Most Popular.” 9. Michigan snaps 143-race winless streak 2012 Dale Earnhardt Jr. has unfortunately had a few rather lengthy winless streaks in his career. It’s something that must be completely disheartening for a driver to experience, especially one who’s had as much success over his career as Dale Jr. Michigan seems to be the track for Dale Jr. when he’s on a winless streak. In 2008 he snapped a 76-race winless streak at Michigan Speedway. Then in 2012 amidst a 143-race winless streak, one race shy of four full seasons, Earnhardt Jr. dominated the race winning by more than five seconds to get the monkey off his back. 8. 2000 All Star Race – first rookie to win Dale Earnhardt Jr. has been on record saying that his favorite win of his career wasn’t even a points paying race. It was his first NASCAR All Star race in 2000, in which he became the first rookie to ever win the event (he remains the only to ever do so). Earnhardt Jr. passed defending Winston Cup champion Dale Jarrett with two laps remaining in the race to take the victory. The reason for it being his favorite is his legendary father Dale Sr. got to spend the entire Victory Lane celebration with him. Dale Sr. had greeted Dale Jr. in Victory Lane twice before when Junior won his first career Cup race at Texas and his second race at Richmond, but both were brief exchanges. This time the father and son really got to experience the celebration together. 7. Wrangler #3 - 2010 Daytona While Dale Earnhardt may have been best known for his pitch-black Goodyear car that helped gain him the nickname “The Intimidator” it was his first ride with Richard Childress in the blue and yellow Wrangler No. 3 car that Dale Jr. liked the best. Dale Jr. got the chance of a lifetime to drive this very paint scheme and that very number in the 2010 July Daytona Xfinity Series race. You just got the sense going into the race and the entire night that Dale Jr. absolutely had to put the car in Victory Lane, despite not having won in any NASCAR series in more than two years. He did just that and afterward said, “This is it. No more 3 for me.” It was a moment fans of both him and his father had always wanted to see and never will forget. 6. 1998 & 1999 Xfinity champ Dale Earnhardt Jr. has been derided occasionally over his career for not winning a NASCAR Cup Series championship, but in his defense, he has raced in the most competitive era in NASCAR history. Still he did become a NASCAR champion in 1998 and repeated in 1999 in the Busch Series (now Xfinity). Earnhardt Jr. thoroughly dominated the series in those two seasons winning 13 races, more than 20 percent of those he entered. The greatest part of it all for Dale Jr. had to be that he accomplished it driving for his father’s Dale Earnhardt Incorporated team. 5. 2000 Texas – first win The first career win is always going to be one of the most memorable moments in any driver’s career, and if he’s lucky he’ll experience many more. Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s first career NASCAR Cup Series victory came at Texas Motor Speedway on April 2, 2000 during his rookie season. One of the greatest aspects of this victory was his dad, Dale Sr., joining him briefly in Victory Lane where he said, “He got a good race car, a good engine and the boy drove a good race.” 4. 2002-2003 4 straight Talladega wins Restrictor plate racing at Talladega Superspeedway has been referred to as a crapshoot because you’re way more likely to get caught up in a big wreck than you are to win this race. Winning consecutive races at Talladega is a hard task to do. Winning four consecutive races at Talladega is almost Godlike. But, Earnhardt Jr. did just that sweeping the Cup Series races at the Alabama track in 2002 and 2003. Some said Dale Jr.’s father could see the draft and it seemed like the apple didn’t fall too far from the tree. Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s six career Cup wins at Talladega are his most of any track and is tied with Jeff Gordon for second all-time; only his father with 10 had more. 3. 2014 Daytona 500 Dale Earnhardt Jr. has compiled eight of his 26 career Cup Series wins while racing for Hendrick Motorsports, but none greater than his second career Daytona 500 victory in 2014, which came on the heels of a winless 2013 season. Earnhardt Jr. led a race high 54 laps to become the 11th driver to win multiple Daytona 500s. 2. 2004 Daytona 500 It famously took Dale Earnhardt Sr. 20 years to win the Daytona 500, a race that was obviously the most important to him and many felt he was owed after years of dominating only to fall short. It only took his son five tries to win the Crown Jewel of the NASCAR schedule. Dale Jr. led 58 laps of the race and held off laps leader Tony Stewart at the finish to win at the track and race that ended his father’s life just three years before. 1. 2001 Daytona July Race The 2001 July race at Daytona was an emotional one with the sport coming back for the first time to the track that Dale Earnhardt Sr. had been killed at on the final lap of the Daytona 500. Everybody had their eyes on Dale Jr. There may not have ever been a race in NASCAR history where seemingly everybody watching wanted the same outcome: for Dale Jr. to win the race. In the Daytona 500 earlier in the season Dale Jr. had helped draft his Dale Earnhardt Incorporated teammate Michael Waltrip to victory. The roles would be reversed for the July race and it seemed like nobody could top the dominate DEI cars. Waltrip would push Dale Jr., who lead a race high 116 laps, past the finish line for the most emotional victory that many in the NASCAR community had ever seen. Dale Jr. would say, “Other than the wins I had when my father was there, that’ll be the day I always remember.”
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
April 2025
|