Dale Earnhardt Jr. will turn 40-years-old on Friday and isn’t entertaining the notion of retiring anytime soon. But the veteran knows that he won’t race in the Sprint Cup Series forever and wants to return to his roots once he calls it quits at the highest level of NASCAR.
On Thursday afternoon at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Earnhardt expressed that he didn’t appreciate his time driving Late Model Stocks like he should have in the early 90’s due to the pressure associated with being the son of Dale Earnhardt and a highly publicized NASCAR prospect in his own right.
NASCAR’s most popular driver began his career competing on short track across the Southeast alongside his brother, Kerry, and sister, Kelley.
Many of those appearances came at legendary tracks like Myrtle Beach (SC), Concord (NC) and North Wilkesboro (NC). Earnhardt would like to someday return there in the years after his retirement and do it in a Late Model at tracks all across the Southeast.
“If I’m lucky enough financially to be able to do that I would love to continue to drive,” Earnhardt said. “I had a lot of fun at that level. I was so nervous back then that I didn’t get to enjoy it as much as I wanted to. I would love to go back and enjoy that more, just racing at Hickory or somewhere.”
Earnhardt also wants to be more hands-on with his dealerships and ownership role at JR Motorsports.
In a perfect world, Earnhardt will finish his driving career racing Late Models out of his team shop in Mooresville while also continuing to mold prospects like he currently does now with drivers Josh Berry and Garrett Jones.
“If I can keep JR Motorsports successful and continue to race cars out of that shop in the Nationwide Series I would love to do that,” Earnhardt added. “I love finding new talent and trying to help people get opportunities to go places.
“That is a big reward for me, so continuing that business would be great.”
By returning to Late Model competition in the coming decades, Dale Earnhardt Jr. has the chance to really give back to the foundation of the sport he loves and chase marquee victories at Martinsville, Myrtle Beach and Langley to go along with his two Harley J. Earl Daytona 500 trophies.
Cool thought, right?
Original Race22 story written by Matt Weaver
