For Dale Earnhardt Jr, making peace with his toughest memory at Daytona has allowed him to embrace what makes the track special.
Earnhardt Jr. experienced another great memory at Daytona International Speedway Thursday night, when JR Motorsports, which he co-owns with his sister Kelly Earnhardt Miller, qualified for The Great American Race with one of the team’s Xfinity drivers, Justin Allgaier.
“I knew it wasn’t the track that took him. I knew that wherever he was, he still felt the same about @DAYTONA” – @DaleJr
Despite the incredible loss he suffered here, Dale Earnhardt Jr. loves this track. He loves the #Daytona500. @JRMotorsports racing here Sunday is special pic.twitter.com/mzzGPXYIFf
— Daren Stoltzfus WESH (@DarenStoltzfus) February 14, 2025
“Where else do you go and barely make the field and cry tears of joy? Nowhere,” Earnhardt Jr said during a press conference Thursday night. “This is incredible and that’s what helps you measure the importance of the race and how big it is to me.”
Earnhardt Jr. won at Daytona four times during his career, including two 500s. But how can the 50-year-old retired driver have fond thoughts about a track where he also experienced tragedy? It’s been 24 years since his father, Dale Earnhardt Sr., died on the final lap of the Daytona 500. And despite that tragedy, Earnhardt Jr. continued loving the track for the same reasons his father did.
“When he passed away, I had to make a decision,” Earnhardt Jr. told reporters. “I had a career in front of me, I was coming back multiple times and I had to figure out a way to be okay with it. I knew it wasn’t the track that took him. And I knew that wherever he is, he still felt the same about Daytona. And so, I’ve embraced it. Him losing his life in this property brought this property closer to me.
“Now that doesn’t work the same for other people in tragedy, but for me, knowing I had to keep coming here, I made some peace with it and embraced the track and love it. Add on top of that, I love the history of the sport and add on top of the fact that this is the cornerstone or foundation of the sport…I was gonna say at some point during this press conference that we should celebrate this track and this race.”
Earnhardt Jr. witnessed the crash up close. And on the final turn of the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500, the last car Earnhardt Sr. saw before his death was his son’s.
The crew chief behind Earnhardt Sr’s 1998 Daytona 500 win and the longtime NASCAR analyst for Fox who was in the booth for that fatal crash in 2001, Larry McReynolds, joined The Awful Announcing Podcast this week, where he discussed the emotions of that broadcast.
It’s still a chilling event for many to reflect on. Earnhardt Jr. was understandably emotional as he opened up on his relationship with the track, but it was fascinating to hear the peace he chose to make with Daytona.
