Dale Earnhardt Jr., the driver of the #88 Mountain Dew Chevrolet, waves to the crowd on his driver introduction lap prior to the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Alabama 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on October 15, 2017, in Talladega, Alabama. Photo – Chris Graythen/Getty Images

During a memorable weekend at Talladega Superspeedway, the reality of his final season in the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet intruded insistently into Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s consciousness.

On Friday, the speedway gave Junior one of the most significant parting gifts he has received this year in a parade of recognition as he visits tracks for the last time as a full-time driver.

On Saturday, Earnhardt won the pole for the Alabama 500, his first at the 2.66-mile superspeedway.

And on Sunday, Earnhardt took the green flag from the third position with three laps left, as fans in the packed grandstands stood, screamed and hoped against hope that Earnhardt could pull off a victory in his last run at NASCAR’s biggest oval.

But it was Brad Keselowski who took the checkered flag in a Ford painted in a scheme that recalled the car he once drove in the NASCAR XFINITY Series for Earnhardt, who gave Keselowski the break that launched his career. Earnhardt faded to seventh over the final three laps. Earnhardt was disappointed at the result—less for himself and more for the fans who came to witness his final run.

“I’m always disappointed when we don’t run well at tracks I know we should, but we did run well today, but I know that everybody was probably… is a little bit of air out of the bag there at the end to finish seventh,” said Earnhardt, whose six victories at Talladega are the most among active drivers.

“I know those folks were hoping we could put something together, and I know there’s a lot of folks came here, particularly to see this race because it’s the last one here. I hate to leave slightly disappointed, but hopefully, they enjoyed everything else they saw. I mean, we ran as hard as we could, did the best we could.”

And though Talladega perhaps offered Earnhardt his best chance at victory before the end of the season, NASCAR’s most popular driver isn’t preparing concession speeches for the remaining Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series tracks.

“Well, I think we go to the race track with a positive attitude,” Earnhardt said. “We know we’ve won at some of these tracks coming up, and you just go in there with a good attitude and see how the weekend works out for you.

“I don’t think that we’ve lost hope on winning a race by any means with the rest of the year. We can’t. I wouldn’t want a driver who felt that way, wouldn’t want a team who felt that way, either. So we’ll go in there with a solid attitude and see how it works out for us.”