Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s NASCAR career by the numbers

Dale Earnhardt Jr. has impacted NASCAR on and off the track, piling up 50 victories in NASCAR's top two series in a career that began in 1996 at age 21.

Earnhardt scored his first Xfinity Series win in his first full-time season in 1998 at Texas Motor Speedway and went on to win six more times that year to clinch the Xfinity Series championship (then Busch Grand National Series). He followed up his rookie campaign with six victories in 1999 and a second championship before moving up to the Sprint Cup Series as a full-time driver in 2000.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. to miss remainder of NASCAR season

Texas Motor Speedway was again the site of a career first, when Earnhardt took the checkered flag on April 2, 2000 to earn his first Cup Series victory. The son of seven-time Cup champion Dale Earnhardt won his first race at Daytona International Speedway at the 2001 Pepsi 400 and the first of two Daytona 500 victories in 2004.

Off the track, Earnhardt has been the face of NASCAR and a beloved driver among fans, having been voted the series' most popular driver every year since 2003.

A look at Earnhardt's career by the numbers:

2

Cup Series wins in his rookie year (2000)

6

Career Cup wins at Talladega Superspeedway, his most at any track

8

Car number during his eight-plus years with DEI (Dale Earnhardt Inc.)

14

NASCAR Most Popular Driver awards, trailing only Bill Elliott for most all time

16

Most top-five finishes he has had in a single year; hitting the mark in 2004 and 2015

21

Years since he made his NASCAR national series debut — June 22, 1996 at the Xfinity Series race in Myrtle Beach, S.C.

24

Career Xfinity Series victories (most recent: April 23, 2016 at Richmond International Raceway)

26

Career Sprint Cup Series victories (most recent: Nov. 15, 2015 at Phoenix International Raceway)

88

Car number since he partnered with Hendrick Motorsports in 2008

Sources: Racing-reference.info and Dalejr.com