Dale Earnhardt Jr. Shares Awesome Memorabilia from His Father's Career
NASCAR star Dale Earnhardt Jr. is one of the best to ever race professionally, but he knows his [...]
NASCAR star Dale Earnhardt Jr. is one of the best to ever race professionally, but he knows his success wouldn't have been possible if it wasn't for his father, the late Dale Earnhardt Sr. Earnhardt Jr. recently did something on Instagram to remember his father as he showed off two pieces of memorabilia fans would love to get his hands on. The first is a uniform Earnhardt Sr. would wear and the other is a rare photo of him after winning a race during the 1980s.
"Most folks know I have in my possession the NOVA that dad raced in today's [Xfinity racing] (then called the Busch Grand National Series) during the mid-1980s," Earnhardt wrote. "I recently got ahold of the uniform he used to win a handful of races in that car. Pretty awesome to pair the two items."
It's unclear which race Earnhardt Sr. was in when the photo was taken because he's won so many during his career. The Hall of Famer won the Winston Cup Series seven times which ties him with Richard Petty for the most all-time. He won a total of 76 Winston Cup races and his biggest win was in 1998 when he won the Daytona 500 for the first time.
The Daytona 500 would be last race for Earnhardt Sr. as he passed away while taking part in the event in 2001. He was in an accident in the final lap of the race where he hit the outside wall of the track head-on. Doctors said Earnhardt died instantly of blunt force trauma and he also suffered a basilar skull fracture.
His son was also in the face and he finished second. He was able to carry on his father's legacy by winning the Busch Series twice and he won the Daytona 500 in 2004 and 2014. Jr. is one of the most beloved figures in NASCAR history as he's been named the organization's Most Popular Driver Award from 2003-2017.
Earnhardt Jr. currently races part-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. He recently talked about how NASCAR can regain the popularity it had when he started racing.
The growth of our sport to its peak, that took decades," Earnhardt said, via the Detroit Free Press (via NESN.com). "That took more than 10 years, 20 years, that was a 50-years process," he said in a phone conversation Friday, ahead of Sunday's Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Michigan International Speedway. "You can take that apart overnight. It can be broken easily. Building it up again is going to take that same perseverance."