Earnhardt’s outgrown his father’s shadow

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — He was so shy, so skinny, not yet somebody.

It was around 1997 and Dale Earnhardt Jr. was testing at Talladega Superspeedway, wearing an all-white firesuit. Bobby Labonte was the star at the Alabama test that day, and all the media crammed into Talladega’s wood-paneled press room to talk to Labonte.

I’m not sure anyone talked to the Earnhardt kid that day. Why would they? Nobody had any idea what he was about to become.

In that moment at Talladega, he was just the son of NASCAR’s greatest hero, a rich kid getting a chance to shake down a car because of his last name. Earnhardt hadn’t accomplished anything and NASCAR had no idea it had a future rock star in its midst.

Earnhardt, it turned out, was not just a kid getting a break because his father owned Dale Earnhardt Inc. The Hall of Famer was tough on his kid, made him work hard, kept him honest — two traits Junior has carried with him all the way until now, his final week as a full-time driver in NASCAR.

Earnhardt will retire after Sunday’s season finale having never won a championship. He never filled his father’s shoes on the race track. But he won two Daytona 500s and built an army of loyal fans.

He also settled into his own skin, found his voice on social media and became the social conscience of NASCAR simply by stating his beliefs and being honest, as

his father had taught him to be.

He took NASCAR to events and appearances the sport had never accessed before, and he settled into a life with wife Amy, who brought him out his shell. She was by his side during a grueling recovery last season from concussions, and the couple will become first-time parents next year.

Earnhardt is nothing at all like the kid trying to wedge his way into NASCAR two decades ago. But in many ways, the money and the fame and lifetime of experiences hasn’t changed him at all.

All the adulation and the accomplishments are because of who Earnhardt is, not because of his lineage.

“I read something on Twitter the other day about my brother, he said he has always lived under Dad’s shadow and that is not such a bad thing,” Earnhardt said. “I don’t Ross D. Franklin /

Dale Earnhart Jr. greets cheering fans prior to a NASCAR Auto Cup Series race at Phoenix International Raceway. AP

know that you are always out from under it, but it didn’t bother me, but I was always compared to him and compared to his success, the person he was, people either liked I was different or didn’t like that I was different and wanted me to be just like him or whatever.

“It was often in conversation or part of the topic of conversation in articles and so forth. I really don’t know when that started to happen.”

And now, with one week left in his retirement tour, the emotions and the reality are very real for Earnhardt. Although he has three cars running for the Xfinity Series championship on Saturday, a future career in broadcasting with NBC, a baby girl on the way, there’s something missing this week.

“I just miss him so bad and wish he were here today to see all this happening,” Earnhardt said of his father.