{"id":10915,"date":"2017-06-30T22:24:04","date_gmt":"2017-07-01T03:24:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=10915"},"modified":"2017-06-30T22:24:04","modified_gmt":"2017-07-01T03:24:04","slug":"dale-earnhardt-jr-talks-about-his-last-race-as-a-full-time-driver-at-daytona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2017\/06\/30\/dale-earnhardt-jr-talks-about-his-last-race-as-a-full-time-driver-at-daytona\/","title":{"rendered":"Dale Earnhardt Jr. talks about his last race as a full-time driver at Daytona"},"content":{"rendered":"

Courtesy of Team Chevrolet Racing and NASCAR<\/em><\/p>\n

DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CHEVROLET SS, met with media at Daytona International Raceway and discussed racing at Daytona, the emotions of racing, his favorite wins, his future hopes & plans, and more. Full Transcript and audio below photo:<\/b><\/p>\n

\"\"

Dale Earnhardt Jr., driver of the #88 Nationwide Chevrolet, stands in the garage area during practice for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series 59th Annual Coke Zero 400 Powered By Coca-Cola at Daytona International Speedway on June 29, 2017 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

YOU LAUNCHED THE JUNIOR NATION APPRECIATION TOUR THIS WEEK.  CAN YOU TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THAT AND YOUR CONNECTION WITH THE FANS AS YOU START THE SECOND HALF OF THE SEASON<\/b>: <\/p>\n

\u201cI was a little bit concerned about what we were going to do, and how to wrap all of this up the right way. In a way that I feel comfortable, and a way that would be meaningful to me. I have been given a great gift being a part of this sport; to be able to run in some great cars and win some races and a lot of great things that have happened to me. So what I wanted to do was to try to make sure that the people who have helped me accomplish all of those things know how much we appreciate them. And that the fans that have supported us through everything we\u2019ve been through know how much we appreciate them because it doesn\u2019t happen without that support from the fans.  I know that. There is a lot of credit due to a lot of people for giving me the opportunity that I have had and opening the doors that have been opened.  We just want to make sure that we acknowledge those folks throughout the season. It is going to be a lot of fun. Hopefully we do a good job by the end of the year and everybody feels appreciated. That would mean a lot to me. That would really make me feel like we accomplished our goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

WHEN YOU TALK ABOUT DAYTONA, IT ALMOST SOUNDS LIKE YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT A PERSON ALMOST, SO CAN YOU EXPLAIN YOU RELATIONSHIP WITH THE TRACK?<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/b>Daytona has been so important to NASCAR. The Daytona 500 is so important to our sport and the health of our sport. A lot of great things have happened here. A lot of drivers have made their careers here. It is something to be proud of if you are in the industry.  It is something proud of. It is a pretty fun race track.  It is going to get its character back. This was a great, great place to race in the early 2000s. The repave changed the track quite a bit, but I\u2019m sure some drivers loved it then. Not to say it changed it for the worse, but as they say, as a track ages, in my opinion, it just gets better and better as the grip goes away and handling becomes more important. It is a very fun track; a challenging track even though it is a superspeedway and we kind of run wide open. When the handling becomes an issue, you can\u2019t run wide open.  You have your hands full.  I appreciate and admire that about the track.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey did a great job on the remodel. The grandstands that we have that allows accessibility to come up to the windows and it\u2019s got the Fan Zone which is a great place for fans just to hang out. It is just a great facility that we as a sport can brag about and be proud of.  A lot of great history here.\u201d<\/p>\n

WHY DO YOU THINK YOU HAVE BEEN SO GOOD ON THIS TRACK?<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cI know this is not a lot of fun to write, but it\u2019s the cars. We have had some really, really good cars here. When I get the car that I need or when I\u2019ve had the cars that I have had that were so good here, you could just do whatever you wanted with them. If you know a little bit about what you are doing, you can make some things happen and control the race.  I say that because I have had some races here that I haven\u2019t had the car that I felt that I needed \u2013 me personally. And, I know without that kind of a race car, I don\u2019t feel confident in getting the job done.  The car has always been really critical.  When we had our string of runs at DEI (Dale Earnhardt, Inc.) from (20)01 to (20)04, we could be here or Talladega in Xfinity or the Cup level and those were some really amazing cars, and some really smart people\u2026we had kind of the whole thing. We had the guys that knew how to create the bodies the way they needed to be, and we also had some great motors with (Ritchie) Gilmore and those guys working on those engines. We just had a really awesome, perfect situation for a while there for the plate stuff. I knew that Hendrick (Motorsports) had the same kind of strength having raced against them. So, when I got in those cars, it was no surprise to me that we ended up coming up here in some pretty fast stuff. Probably should have won more races than we did. It starts with the car. You go out there and practice. It either surprises you \u2013 I had my car yesterday do a couple of things that I thought \u2018WOW, this is alright\u2019.  Sometimes you go out there and practice that first practice and you are a little underwhelmed, and then you are kind of concerned and you work on it, and hopefully improve, but sometimes you don\u2019t. You take a car like that into the race, it is just hard to be confident in making choices and making moves and being on the offense and doing stuff all the time. When your car is really, really strong, you\u2019ll try any run you get because you just know that if it doesn\u2019t work, it\u2019s not going that bad; you are not going to fall back too far. There\u2019s not a whole lot of risk in trying whatever you want to try. So the cars are a big part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

INAUDIBLE: \u201c<\/b>I think there are a lot of smart plate racers out there.  Denny (Hamlin) is awesome. (Joey) Logano runs great at these tracks. (Brad) Keselowski has figured it out. I think I know what I\u2019m doing out there. But I don\u2019t know how you rate one guy versus the next because we are all in kind of different cars every time we come back here. Sometimes Denny\u2019s car gets the job done and he whoops us; sometimes we get the job done and sometimes it is somebody else.  I watched Dad.  I didn\u2019t know what I was seeing when I was watching him. But once I got out on the track and I started doing things with my car, I realized what I was seeing all of those years, and why things were happening the way they were.  I started to understand \u2018why?\u2019.  How does a side draft feel if you have never been out there? Why do they do that? Why do they side draft and sling away? Why is happening?  You don\u2019t know that until you get out there in the car.  I always try to get into practice and be aggressive. When young guys ask me about drafting I say go out there and practice and learn everything you can.  We don\u2019t practice as much pack racing as we used to. Back in the day there would be 20-25 cars out there in the draft. I was out there like it was a race and I was trying to put my car in every position I could to learn whatever I could about its ability and if we needed to go work on something. We don\u2019t get to do that much anymore, but that is what I tell guys when they ask my advice is to go out there and practice and learn everything you can and be aggressive in practice. You can\u2019t really wait for the race and then learn everything you need to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n

AS YOU COME TO THE MEDIA CENTER EVERY WEEK, IS THERE A CONCERN THAT YOUR EMOTIONS WILL AMPLIFY THE END APPROACHING?<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not having any anxiety about the end coming, I feel pretty good about that. I feel pretty good about my decision. I haven\u2019t had any second guesses or regrets about that. So, I don\u2019t\u2019 believe I will have any anxiety as it starts to get closer to Homestead.  I just don\u2019t want to miss anything. I don\u2019t want to miss a moment that I should take in. I don\u2019t want to miss opportunity to let people know how much they mean to me. Everybody in the industry means to me. You guys \u2013 we\u2019ve had a great relationship and I\u2019m friends with quite a few of you in here. Not that I\u2019m never going to show up again, or never going to around again. As far as my driving career, I just want to make sure that I have the opportunity or take the opportunity every chance I get to thank people for making this so much fun. So there is a little bit of anxiety there. Am I doing that? I am also trying to race; trying to win; trying to get in the Chase and trying to fulfill all the responsibilities to Greg (Ives, crew chief) and being accountable and available to him. There is still a lot of work going on. So it is kind of hard sometimes to balance between saying farewell and getting the job done \u2013 the best job you can for this season. \u201c<\/p>\n

DAYS OF THUNDER CAME OUT 25 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK. WHAT ARE YOUR MEMORIES OF THAT MOVIE? <\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing that pops in my mind \u2013 now this is all here-say because nobody was in the room but Dad, the producer and director and (Tom) Cruise.  Tom Cruise comes over to the Deer Head Shop.  DEI wasn\u2019t built yet. So we are excited. We are going to meet Tom Cruise.  Me and Kelley are there \u2013 we are giddy.  And he comes in\u2026he is five-foot shorter than I thought he\u2019d be and he had pimples all over his face. I remember that.  They go into Dad\u2019s office. And they come out 30 minutes later, and I guess they were picking Dad\u2019s brain. But the rumor was they offered Dad the role of Rowdy Burns.  I don\u2019t know if that is really true or not, but that was the rumor. But Dad turned it down because he didn\u2019t want to play the bad guy.  Just a rumor, I don\u2019t know if it is true or not. I was so young, you hear the rumor later but I never did get a chance to figure out if it was really true or not. Hard to believe if it true or not.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought the movie was fun and it was great. I was a big Robert Duvall fan because I loved the mini-series Lonesome Dove when it came out. He is just great in everything. I liked him being in it and he did an awesome job. I thought it was a fun movie.\u201d<\/p>\n

WHAT ARE SOME FAVORITE MEMORIES ON OR OFF THE TRACK AT DAYTONA?<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cOff the track would have been\u2026there was a scoring stand down in turn one that is where all the wives and children went for the race. So, you would go down there into that stand to watch the race and there would be everybody\u2019s kids.  We would all be playing around and goofing off. That was pretty fun. Back in those days drivers, crews and everybody stayed in hotels on the beach. So we were in the pool all week. I remember falling off a high-dive one time and think I killed myself. Just being around in those hotels and seeing everybody. You\u2019d have drivers in the pool after practice. That was cool for those guys to be able to do that. It seemed like it was just us there\u2026just the family.  It\u2019s changed a lot now, it isn\u2019t done like that anymore. That was pretty cool. Everybody kind of hanging around at the beach when they weren\u2019t at the race track.\u201d<\/p>\n

YOUR FANS ARE FOLLOWING YOU THROUGH THIS JOURNEY AND THEY\u2019D LOVE YOU TO STAY. SO ANYTIME YOU SAY SOMETHING LIKE YOU MIGHT BE BACK AT DAYTONA ONE DAY THEY GRAB ONTO IT. ARE YOU JUST LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN JUST IN CASE?  OR, YOU MIGHT NOT REALLY KNOW.<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I don\u2019t really know. I just definitely want to leave the door open for any opportunity. Somebody may need me to come in and help. I\u2019ve seen when Tony (Stewart) needed some help and guys that come out of retirement to help and Jeff (Gordon) did that for us last year.  I wouldn\u2019t be opposed to helping somebody if they need some help. I feel like I\u2019m done full time. And I feel comfortable about that choice. But I\u2019m going to run roughly two to six Xfinity races for I don\u2019t know how many years to try to continue to grow JR Motorsports and keep it healthy. Will that be enough to keep me happy? I don\u2019t know. We\u2019ll see. I don\u2019t think that there will be opportunities for me in good cars to really want to come out and do it. I don\u2019t even know what that looks like. I definitely want to be at Daytona next year. I\u2019ll probably come out here and watch the race but I don\u2019t be driving in it. We\u2019ll just kind of see how it goes after that. I don\u2019t really know. I wouldn\u2019t be opposed to helping someone, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

YOU HAVEN\u2019T BEEN ALL THAT EMOTIONAL ABOUT THINGS SINCE THE ANNOUNCEMENT. BUT HERE AT DAYTONA, HAVE YOU FELT ANY ADDITIONAL EMOTIONS? IS LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN A DEFENSE MECHANISM FROM FEELING THOSE EMOTIONS?<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know. That\u2019s funny. I haven\u2019t felt any emotions. I didn\u2019t see any from Steve either when he was winding his deal down, until Homestead. He fell out on me on pit road. But I\u2019m thinking it\u2019s kind of going to be like that. This whole thing, this decision to retire, wasn\u2019t a spur of the moment. It was sort of building inside me because of the things that we\u2019ve been through over the years. What I mean is that I\u2019m quite comfortable with it, more than anyone else. I got emotional last night watching that race on NBC. But, I do every time I watch it. I think about the Eurys and my Uncle Danny. I watched that celebration in the infield and I know I looked like I was letting it sink in but you can\u2019t go back and do that over again. But, there were a lot of people there and brought up a lot of memories. That was a great team.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, when I see those kinds of highlights or something like that, it kind of brings some emotion around. Being at the track or getting in the car or hearing the national anthem or coming to Daytona for this last race, nothing really has bothered me too much.\u201d<\/p>\n

REGARDING NASCAR HISTORY, HOW IMPORTANT WERE THE INDEPENDENT-TYPE GUYS?<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cI was a big Jimmy Means fan. Dad introduced me to him at North Wilkesboro. It was around 1985 maybe or \u201984. I just always wanted to see Jimmy do well learning his struggle and understanding what a challenge it was for a guy like him obviously made you want to see him get a little bit more than what he expected out of his cars and maybe luck into a top 10 or a top 15 finish, which might pay him a little bit better for that weekend. You kind of felt that way about all those guys because Jimmy and those guys ran in the same circles of helping each other and leaning on each other down at that end of the garage. And, hanging around Jimmy\u2019s truck with Brad Means, is son, I spent a lot of time getting to know how they operated and what they did and how they worked compared to my father\u2019s teams and other teams at the other end of the garage. You couldn\u2019t help but just pull for them and see them do well. I became a big fan of the underdog. And then watching history and old races I learned about all kinds of guys that almost got close a few times to really having some great finishes. They are as important to the sport as the stars of those days. They were out there competing and trying to do the best they could. I find their careers a little more interesting sometimes because of the hoops they had to jump through and the deals they had to make and how they got from one place to the next is a little bit more interesting than some of the other guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT GOING TO BRISTOL FOR POTENTIALLY THE LAST TIME IN A CUP CAR AND WHAT THAT TRACK HAS MEANT TO YOU?<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was a kid, the night race at Bristol was the one I got really excited about. They parked the vans over the corner and we was literally it felt like 20 feet from the cars sitting on top of the vans there. You just could see the drivers working in the cars and you could see the action. There was no better experience in my book than getting that close to stock car racing in those days at Bristol. Me and the other kids would run around and beg everybody to let us wax their cars or whatever we could do. It was such a small place. It was fun to get involved in anything and everything in the infield. During the race we\u2019d probably watch from 50 different vantage points. We\u2019d be climbing all over trucks and going down pit road and getting on this truck and that truck. We\u2019d just be everywhere. So, I loved going there.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe track itself is real unique. There\u2019s not another one like it. It has always been a surprise to me that nobody has every tried to emulate it somewhere else because it\u2019s such an incredible place. Particularly when it was asphalt, it was quite the race track. And it\u2019s surprising to me that nobody has tried to rebuild that sort of race track somewhere else to see how it would do. But maybe it\u2019s best there\u2019s only one. It\u2019s still a lot of fun to race on even though it\u2019s changed quite a bit. And, I always thought that was one of the coolest trophies. It was taller than me for quite a large part of my life. Until I graduated from high school I don\u2019t think I was any taller than that trophy and Daddy had a bunch of them in the house.  He had a lot of clocks. He had a lot of Bristol trophies. And I wanted one of each. So, I feel lucky to have those now.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

LAST MONTH AT KANSAS SPEEDWAY GRAHAM RAHAL TWEETED YOU THAT HE WANTED TO RUN DAYTONA IN A CUP CAR OR MAYBE AN XFINITY CAR AND HE ASKED FOR YOUR HELP. HAS HE REACHED OUT TO YOU? IS THAT SOMETHING YOU WOULD LIKE TO HELP HIM WITH?<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s improbable. We have four teams. They\u2019re full. And that\u2019s hopefully how that\u2019s going to stay. We don\u2019t want to be in the all-star business where we have a car with six or seven or eight different drivers in it. That\u2019s great. And, there\u2019s good money in that because a lot of times those guys do bring a little bit more money. But, we really enjoy racing four cars for the title and four drivers and focusing on those efforts. And for us to run a fifth car really spreads us pretty thin. We\u2019d have to do it on occasion. And as long as we have four full cars, I don\u2019t see it as a possibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

DENNY HAMLIN SAID HE WANTS TO PASS YOU ON THE LAST LAP FOR THE WIN. CHASE ELLIOTT SAYS HE\u2019S NOT GOING TO PULL OVER FOR YOU SO YOU CAN GET BY HIM. WHAT IS<\/b> YOUR PERFECT SCENARIO FOR THE ENDING OF THE RACE FOR COMING DOWN TO THE WIRE?<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I\u2019m behind the No. 88 I\u2019m probably going to let him win; hell yeah (laughter). I\u2019m a little different than the other drivers. I won\u2019t pass him.\u201d<\/p>\n

YOU MENTIONED WATCHING THE THROWBACK LAST NIGHT AND HOW YOU ALWAYS GET EMOTIONAL WATCHING RACES LIKE THAT FROM THE PAST. ASSUMING THIS IS YOUR LAST RACE HERE, YOU\u2019VE WON 17 RACES, CAN YOU PICK OUT THREE THAT STAND OUT TO YOU THE MOST?<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, it\u2019s on that painting. Winning the race in that Wrangler car was awesome. It shocked me. I really don\u2019t know if I\u2019ve ever felt any pressure like I felt that night. I didn\u2019t realize it was going to be pressure until I got there and I got in the race and I thought, oh, man. I\u2019ve got to win this thing because this car, this whole promotion, this is my favorite paint scheme that I\u2019ve ever ran and that my dad ever ran. And, man the pressure was on. So, I was really relieved that we won.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 2014 win was a big deal. We really needed a shot in the arm like that for ourselves and the team and my career; and \u201904 was a special moment too. The \u201901 race I think is really hard; it\u2019s probably my favorite to be honest with you because of the circumstances. It\u2019s not the bigger race; it\u2019s not the Daytona 500. Because of the circumstances that one is pretty important.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Courtesy of Team Chevrolet Racing and NASCAR DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CHEVROLET SS, met with media at Daytona International Raceway and discussed racing at Daytona, the emotions of racing, his favorite wins, his future hopes & plans, and more. Full Transcript and audio below photo:   YOU LAUNCHED THE JUNIOR NATION APPRECIATION TOUR […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10907,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[167,287,16],"class_list":["post-10915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-dale-earnhardt-jr","tag-daytona-international-speedway","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/DIS_MENCS_Earnhardt_062917-e1498879163577.jpg?fit=640%2C431","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-2Q3","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10915"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10915\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10917,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10915\/revisions\/10917"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}