Dale Earnhardt Jr. will wrap up his NASCAR career in No. 88 today
HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Dale Earnhardt Jr. bounded out of the media center and was instantly swarmed by fans snapping photos and shoving Sharpies in his face. Earnhardt was tailed until he walked up the steps to another TV interview.
“Did you see him?” a man yelled as more fans arrived a few strides too late to reach NASCAR’s most popular driver.
The chance to catch him is winding down.
Earnhardt will retire today, ending a career that saw him emerge from his father’s intimidating shadow and grow into NASCAR’s favorite son over 18 full seasons. Hilarious and heartfelt, his folksy charm endeared him to the millions that comprised “Junior Nation “and made him a household name to the casual fan recognizing Earnhardt simply as NASCAR’s top pitchman.
Earnhardt has one final destination on his farewell tour, at Homestead-Miami Speedway, a track that over the last two years also helped the sport bid farewell to NASCAR greats Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart. His legacy will be different, not simply because Earnhardt never won a championship. If anything, he was more beloved as an ambassador of the sport than any driver of his era.
The 20-something Earnhardt who retreated into his motorhome to play video games all night has matured into a 43-year-old man who will be flanked today by his pregnant wife, his mother and sister before he slides into the No. 88 Chevrolet one last time.
“There’s a whole other world out there waiting for him,” sister Kelley Earnhardt Miller said. “There’s his marriage and having a baby and doing
other things in life, either professionally or personally that he hasn’t been able to do. He’ll have time for them now. It’s exciting.”
Earnhardt’s finale hit a bump Friday — he’ll start from the rear of the field because of an engine change in the Chevys. His one wish was to end the race on his terms.
“It would be a bit of a heartbreaker if we have the kind of issue that would take us out of an event and we couldn’t finish,” he said.
Earnhardt, dressed in a red T-shirt and red cap of his race sponsor, was at ease as he reflected on the end of career that started May 30, 1999, at Charlotte Motor Speedway. He finished
16th — dad was sixth — and he soon started his perpetual grip on NASCAR’s most popular driver award.
Earnhardt cracked jokes, quizzed his eligibility to race in an Xfinity race with a reporter and spoke with some regret on the misspent years early in his career.
“There were days when I would come into the garage to practice and everybody was in their cars pulling out of their stalls and I’m just walking in,” he said. “And, nothing was wrong with that, you know, in my mind. That’s crazy. I mean, you’d be fired in this day and time if a driver was that carefree about it. It didn’t seem to matter.”