In racing, the Earnhardt name carries it’s weight in gold. The Intimidator known as Dale Earnhardt was one of the best of his time and his son Dale Earnhardt Jr. ended up jumping into the family business. Sadly, Dale Sr. died in a car accident at a race some time ago and that left Junior to fend for himself in the racing world.
He began succeeding early on, but since then Dale Jr. has sort of sunk. Then 2014 happened and it seems that Earnhardt is not only improving, but he is thriving. He won as the Daytona 500 race and has had two second place finishes in the last four races. Simply put, Earnhardt is having a Dale Sr. like year.
Dale Earnhardt Jr . fans have waited for years for him to live up the expectations they have had for him. Until now, he has failed to live up to those. Yet his fans never left his side, and he remains one of the most popular racers in the NASCAR series. Even while Jimmie Johnson seemingly wins everything known to man, Dale Jr. loses and still keeps a die-hard fan base.
Right now, Dale Jr. seems to be thinking he is at the top of his game….so that brings up the idea of potentially leaving at the top.
He expressed on twitter after a fan asked him a question about him potentially doing television after leaving NASCAR:
Maybe wishful thinking, Id love to run NW a few years. Trucks a year. Then Late Models till the end. Go out the way I came in
It’s weird though, why would Earnhardt want to go to the Nationwide Series then the Truck series….all the way to the random late model stuff? Due to his popularity, he makes a lot of money on endorsements per year. He is clearly marketable and makes bank right now and has done so despite the numerous loses over the last number of years. Yet at the end of that, he wants to go backwards?
It makes no sense for Dale Jr. to want to jump backward when he is just now seemingly fitting in and looking like a star. Or does it make complete sense?
Earnhardt loves racing, if he didn’t then he clearly would have left by now. As a result of this, it seems that he wants to go to the low budget stuff and get into the heart of the sport where the real grit is going on. While this may not make much sense to the fans, it makes complete sense to Dale Earnhardt Jr.. and if it makes sense to Junior, it seems obvious that his fans will follow. Whether Earnhardt retires from racing soon or just from the big races is yet to be determined however.