Dale Jr. awaiting his 600th race
fontana, calif.» Dale Earnhardt Jr. is wellprepared for his 600th NASCAR Cup Series race this weekend, but he can’t help thinking about his first race.
He still recalls his conversation with Tony Eury Jr., his cousin and crew chief, as he sat on that starting grid at Charlotte in 1999.
“I remember telling Tony that I would switch with him for a million dollars so he could do this instead of me,” Earnhardt said Friday with a chuckle. “Because I was scared to death . ... I was overwhelmed with the weight of the situation, and how much attention it was getting, and it made it really hard to soak in and enjoy it, I guess.
“We just wanted to do so well and not fail. It was fun. It was a wild time.”
The son of racing royalty once felt crushed by expectations, yet he persevered and established his own legacy in the sport. Along with being NASCAR’s most popular driver for most of his career, Junior has 26 victories, 252 top-10 finishes and two Daytona 500 trophies in his first 599 races.
“I just wanted to drive,” the 42-year-old Earnhardt recalled. “I wanted to race cars for a living. I wanted to do it well enough to be able to afford to make a living doing it. I didn’t have vision or assume that I was going to make all of the money and success that we have made, but all I really wanted to do was to do it long enough so I didn’t have to get a real job.”
Earnhardt has done it effectively and consistently for 17 straight years. Only 24 drivers in NASCAR history have started 600 races, and Earnhardt would love to celebrate his entry into the club Sunday with his first win on the well-aged asphalt at Fontana, where he has typically run well for most of his storied career.
Earnhardt hasn’t won a race since late 2015 — and he has never won at Fontana in 24 starts despite finishing second twice and landing inside the top 12 in six consecutive outings at Auto Club Speedway.
He missed the second half of last season with a concussion, at least the fourth of his racing career. The absence was his longest break from competition since his debut season back in the 20th century.