Dale Earnhardt Jr. had every reason in the world to hate racing. The sport took his father's life after a horrifying car crash at the 2001 Daytona 500. There would have been no faulting him for washing his hands clean from motorsports forever. However, Junior has sculpted quite the impressive resume for himself on the track and it's looking good for him now that he's working off the tracks. His JR Motorsports team just qualified to be apart of this year's Daytona 500. Naturally, it awakens a bit of grief for Dale and he's opening up about it.
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Recently, Junior took to a press conference after his team won the qualifier to be apart of the Daytona 500. There, he opens up about what it means to come back to the track, despite the trauma and the grief associated with it. "Daddy loved Daytona and loved winning here. He just loved to win any race here," Dale says. "And gosh, I loved coming here as a kid. Just a lot of great memories. So when he passed away I had to make a decision. I had a career in front of me, I was coming back multiple times and I had to figure out a way to be ok with it. And I knew that it wasn't the track that took him. And I know that he, wherever he was, still felt the same about Daytona."
Dale Earnhardt Jr. Gets Candid About Returning to Daytona After Losing His Father
Dale adds that eventually, he had to come to some sort of peace with the tragedy for him to ever move forward in life, professionally and personally. "So I've embraced it. Him losing his life in this property brought this property closer to me... For me, knowing I had to keep coming here, I made some peace with it and embraced the track and love it," he continues.
Ultimately, Dale has committed his entire life to the sport he loves, despite all the sadness that came with it in his life. The emotions that he lays out there, the tears he sheds, it all goes to show how much he cares about racing. "Add on top of that, I love the history of the sport. This is one of the cornerstones, this is the foundation of the sport," Junior says. "This is really what helped us launch ourselves off the beach and out of the dirt tracks...and make us a genuine sport. And all of the historic moments that happened here, and getting to win here myself.
Where else do you go and barely make the field and cry tears of joy? Nowhere. That helps you measure the importance of the race and how big it is, to me anyway," Dale concludes.
