Dale Earnhardt Jr. is making a one-race return from retirement to fulfill a contract with Unilever and Hellman’s. It will be an exciting race for fans of the two-time Daytona 500 winner.
Earnhardt Jr. comes from a long line of NASCAR stars. His father was Dale Earnhardt Sr., a NASCAR hall of famer and his grandfather was Ralph Earnhardt, another NASCAR competitor.
Earnhardt races for his own company, JR Motorsports. He shares ownership with his sister, Kelley Earnhardt Miller, and legendary owner Rick Hendrick. JR Motorsports has five cars in the NASCAR Xfinity Series circuit.
Earnhardt won 26 wins at the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, making him a top-40 finisher of all time. Originally from Kannapolis, North Carolina, the driver will compete on Friday night in Richmond, Virginia. Richmond has a notably smooth track and it is where Earnhardt last won the Xfinity race two years ago.
Contributing to decisions about his retirement from racing is his approximate 25 concussions that Earnhardt has suffered from driving. But, Earnhardt has admitted that if it is worth the money that his team would receive for his performances, he may return to racing.
The same day qualifying time allowed him to make the ordeal simpler. He said after he barely made it through the qualifying round:
“I was talking to my [commentary] teammate up there in the booth, Jeff Burton, about watching these guys lay back in qualifying, and I said I’d never tried it because I’d be too nervous. I got nothing to lose here, so I went easy in the first round, only ran one lap, and was just fast enough… We saved the tires, so we were able to get more performance in the next rounds. The car was really tight, and we made some good adjustments to get it to turn a bit better… I’m liking that. We’ll fire off tight tonight on the sticker tires, but our car will get better and better the longer we run.”
Here’s how Earnhardt felt back when he initially announced his race for Friday:
When I decided to retire from racing cars in 2017, I still had a contract remaining with the @Unilever brand @Hellmanns to drive 1 @XfinityRacing event in 2018. Well, it’s this weekend @RichmondRaceway. I’m excited, nervous, and it feels weird. 830am practice Friday morning. ??
— Dale Earnhardt Jr. (@DaleJr) September 18, 2018
We’ll see what Earnhardt has to offer in his first race in a while very soon!
