Earnhardts, No. 3 and RCR all reunite at Talladega

At Talladega Superspeedway, one’s luck can change in a split second.

The measurement of time on and off the track are relative, though. Off the asphalt, things can take longer and still feel just as quick.

Jefferey Earnhardt’s luck changed in the weeks leading up to racing at Talladega — the track where his grandfather and uncle’s words might as well be written in red letters — at a white-knuckle pace. The span of just another week to the ride of his lifetime was three weeks.

And as he spent Tuesday crossing Ts and dotting Is and fulfilling media interviews one after another, the line between his dreams and reality felt as defined as a fever dream.

“It’s like one thing after another just came up and it all like it just all seems surreal; like, there’s no way this is actually happening,” said the grandson of Talladega and NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt, Sr. “... I keep telling everybody, I keep waiting for somebody to pinch me and wake me up from this dream I’m having.”

But about that dream. For the first time since just after the years started with 2s, there will again be an Earnhardt in the hallowed black No. 3. And it just keeps getting better for the 32-year-old Earnhardt and the throngs of fans still loyal to the Intimidator, as his grandfather was known.

Earnhardt, son of Kerry Earnahrdt, will run Saturday’s Xfinity Series Ag-Pro 300 (3 p.m., FOX) for Richard Childress Racing, the man who helped deliver his late grandfather to six of his seven Cup Series championships and even with one of his former crew chiefs, Birmingham native Larry McReynolds.

“It means the world to me, really,” Earnhardt said. “It’s been a dream of mine for quite a while. For years we’ve been trying to figure out how to make something to where I can come here and compete at RCR in the No. 3 car, and, you know, this deal came together so quick.”

When it was just, “talks,” Earnhardt said had watched the days on the calendar be crossed off, confident it would happen but diffident on a date. Daytona International Speedway, he thought, as the calendar flipped to April.

“… and then Richard was like, “no, Talladega.” Well, that’s three weeks away and we’ve got lots of work to do,” Earnhardt said. “So, it’s been a lot of hard work and little bit stressful — I was stressing, I don’t know if everybody else was — but everybody busted their butts to make it happen.”

And why not Talladega? As much as NASCAR’s biggest track meant to Earnhardt Sr.’s career — an all-time best 10 wins — it’s a pretty special place to Childress, too. He considers it where he got one of the biggest breaks of his career when he ran the inaugural event there in 1969.