Dale Earnhardt Jr. surprised at outpouring of support since retirement announcement
RICHMOND, Va. – Dale Earnhardt Jr. admitted he was worried that people were going to be upset and angry with him after he announced Tuesday that he was retiring from the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series at the end of the season.
He figured many reactions would land in the “what the hell?” department, but Earnhardt said he’s been gratified at the outpouring of support.
“It’s been real positive, which I’m thankful for,” Earnhardt said Friday at Richmond International Raceway. “The conversations I’ve had with folks in the media, in the industry and in the garage have been great.
“I thought the press conference was set up well and that all went as smooth as I could have hoped. I felt like when I was up there giving my speech that I sounded like a monotone robot, but everybody has given me positive reviews on that. It’s been hard to admit that’s what I want to do and that’s the choice I want to make, but otherwise the feedback’s been great.”
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But the 42-year-old Hendrick Motorsports driver also admitted that there were several times last year when he was recovering from concussion symptoms that affected his vision and balance and sidelined him for the second half of the 2016 season that he didn’t care if he ever raced again.
“When I was hurt last year, there were several chunks of time where I was like ‘I don’t think I can race again if I wanted to.’ There were several points in the deal last year where not driving cars was a real possibility. I didn’t really even care, I was so sick.
“You were so sick that you just wanted to be normal. You didn’t care whether you got to race again. You were so bad you just wanted to, hopefully, just get right.”
Earnhardt said retirement always was in the back of his mind and he could never get to the point where he was 100% on board with going forward and signing an extension with the team he has called home since 2008. He took that as a signal that it was time to “hang it up.”
“It’s so hard to explain how that happens, at least for me,” Earnhardt said. “It wasn’t like a switch, it was kind of like just a long -- what has it been 10 months since I got hurt? That whole experience is part of the decision. It’s not really like one reason. It’s what I need to do. I need to do it. I needed to make this decision.”
Earnhardt missed 18 races in 2016 but was determined to go out on his own terms and timeline. The man who competed in his first NASCAR race in the Xfinity Series in 1996 (at Myrtle Beach Raceway) and who grew up at the racetrack watching his legendary father, seven-time Cup Series champion Dale Earnhardt Sr., crush competitors and build a legion of fans, said he still loves to drive, “but there is a time when you know it’s got to come to an end and that is how it is for me.”
Earnhardt knows that the remaining tracks will be lining up to offer tributes as the season plays out, and unlike three-time champion Tony Stewart, who retired at the end of last season, he’s fine with that.
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“Whatever the tracks need to do, that’s OK,” Earnhardt said. “It’s a little weird. The packages like the’’88 bucks’ -- that stuff has always been a little bit weird to me, but it’s whatever the tracks need to do. I’m cool.”
Earnhardt’s focus going forward, though, will be his performance behind the wheel and that begins this weekend at the 0.75-mile Richmond oval, which he called the highlight of 2016 when he won the spring Xfinity race – his only victory as a driver in any series last season. He says the pressure is different now with the retirement announcement out there, but his thirst for wins has not abated.
“We just want to go to victory lane one more time, just to get that experience one more time would be awesome for me and I think the (team) would love it for sure,” Earnhardt said. “I certainly did feel a lot more relaxed now. I don’t know whether it’s because I finally got to tell everybody and let everybody know what we are doing, get that over with, but I certainly felt real relaxed today in the garage during practice.”
Follow Horrow on Twitter @EllenJHorrow
PHOTOS: BEHIND THE WHEEL WITH DALE EARNHARDT JR.
