Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Formidable Legacy will Continue Off the Track

Dale Earnhardt Jr. gives a statement announcing his retirement from NASCAR after the 2017 season at the Hendrick Motorsports Team Center on April 25, 2017 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Photo – Mike Comer/Getty Images

The suddenness and finality of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Tuesday retirement announcement may have sent shock waves through the world of NASCAR racing, but from a global viewpoint, the timing couldn’t be more appropriate.

And it’s not as if NASCAR’s 14-time most popular driver will disappear from the stock car racing landscape when he stops driving a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series car at the end of the current season. Continue reading

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Wanted to Step Away on his Own Terms, Announces 2017 will be Final Season

Dale Earnhardt Jr. answers questions from the media during a press conference to announce his retirement from NASCAR after the 2017 season at the Hendrick Motorsports Team Center on April 25, 2017 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Photo – Mike Comer/Getty Images

More than anything, Dale Earnhardt Jr. wanted to be the master of his own destiny.

In announcing his retirement from Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series racing on Tuesday at the Hendrick Motorsports campus in Charlotte, North Carolina, Earnhardt described his primary motivation during months of physically and emotionally exhausting rehabilitation from a concussion that sidelined him from the final 18 races of the 2016 season. Continue reading

Passion to Race Drives Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Return to the Track

Dale Earnhardt Jr., driver of the #88 Nationwide Chevrolet, stands on the grid during qualifying for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series 59th Annual DAYTONA 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 19, 2017 in Daytona Beach, Florida.
Photo – Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

Dale Earnhardt Jr. felt “wobbly” and didn’t know why.

In his motor coach last July at Kentucky Speedway, Earnhardt felt the first hint of the concussion symptoms that would keep him out of the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet for the last half of the 2016 season.

He voiced his concerns to fiancée Amy Reimann. Continue reading

Newly Married Dale Earnhardt Jr. Eager to Start 2017 Season

Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. poses for a photo during the NASCAR 2017 Media Tour at the Charlotte Convention Center on January 25, 2017 in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Photo – Jared C Tilton/Getty Images

Dale Earnhardt Jr. is in his happy place.

On New Year’s Eve, NASCAR’s most popular driver married long-time girlfriend Amy Reimann. The couple honeymooned on Maui and Kaua’i.

But neither of those Hawaiian Islands tugs on Earnhardt’s psyche the way Daytona Beach does, and at long last, in mid-February, he’ll be back on track at the Birthplace of Speed, racing a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series car for the first time since July 9 at Kentucky Speedway. Continue reading