Dale Jr.’s Retirement: ‘Opportunity to Go Out on My Own Terms’

Ron Lemasters | JR Motorsports | 4/25/2017

Dale Jr. News

Earnhardt announced his retirement from the NASCAR Cup Series at the end of the 2017 season today during a press conference at Hendrick Motorsports.

MOORESVILLE, N.C. (April 25, 2017) – There comes a time in everyone’s life where the path you’re on is no longer the one you’ll tread the rest of your life.

For Dale Earnhardt Jr., that time is now.

The 42-year-old Earnhardt announced his retirement from the NASCAR Cup Series at the end of the 2017 season today, setting the stage for the life he’ll lead once the echo of the engines fade away.

As one might expect, the NASCAR world stopped spinning for a couple of moments earlier today, and started spinning much faster immediately afterward.

Earnhardt Jr.’s contract with Hendrick Motorsports expires at the end of the season, and he and the team had been discussing next steps when the news broke. In the end, he said, it was a matter of choice.

“It’s really simple: I just wanted the opportunity to go out on my own terms,” an emotional Earnhardt Jr. said during his press conference. “I wanted to honor my commitment to Rick [Hendrick], to my sponsors, to my team and the fans. I’ll admit that having influence over my exit only became meaningful when it started to seem most unlikely. I had to face the realization that my driving career may have already ended without me getting so much as a vote at the table.

“During my rehab, I was given something else I wasn’t accustomed to, and that was time,” he said, regarding his concussion recovery last season. “Time to understand what was important to me, what an incredible support system I have in my wife, my team and my doctors, and time to work like hell to wrestle back some semblance of say-so in this whole matter.

“That became my motivation: the opportunity to stand here at this podium and announce my choice rather than some fate that was decided for me.”

Earnhardt Jr. said the decision was made near the end of March, and he went to see Rick Hendrick, owner of Hendrick Motorsports and co-owner of JR Motorsports. Earnhardt Jr. said the toughest part of the decision to announce his retirement from the Cup side was telling Hendrick of his choice.

“I just didn’t want to disappoint you,” he said, looking at Hendrick. “You mean so much to me. On March 29, I drove over to tell him, and his response was, he told me he loved me. Becoming a bigger part of your life has changed me forever. You’ve given me guidance and direction that will reward me for as long as I live.”

Hendrick said it was a tough conversation for him as well.

“It was a tough conversation, a very emotional conversation,” Hendrick said. “When we came out, we were excited about what’s next. I’m focused on what comes next. I’d love to have him drive for as long as I own a race team. To the person, that I’ve talked to the last few days, sponsors, all our partners, the first thing they said was, ‘we want what Dale wants, we want what’s best for Dale.’ There will never be another Dale Earnhardt Jr. You’re the one, and I’m super excited about what you’ve meant to me personally, what you’ve done for our company and for what you mean in my life.”

Earnhardt’s decision to step out of the cockpit of the No. 88 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports means he’s no longer going to race in NASCAR’s top series. It will not be the end for him as a driver, however. He will run two NASCAR Xfinity Series events in 2018 for JR Motorsports, his race team and management company.

“I am eager to explore new opportunities, I don’t see myself really detaching from NASCAR,” he said. “My intention is to be involved in the sport at some level. You’ve not seen the last of me on the track, but more important, I want to be part of the future of this sport for many, many years to come.”

As with any retirement announcement, there were plenty of people to thank. Chief among them was his sister, Kelley Earnhardt Miller.

“I think if you have to pick one word to sum up her life, it would be sacrifice,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “She dropped out of one school to enroll in military school because she was worried about me. She came to work for me even though she knew she would have to take a massive pay cut, because she knew I needed her. She made it her life’s mission to have my back, and I’m telling you today how much I appreciate that.”

He added thanks to his mother, Brenda Jackson, and his late father, Dale Earnhardt Sr., as well as the team members he’s raced with since he started in NASCAR in 1999.

His exit from the sport by his own choice comes on the heels of the recent retirements of Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and Carl Edwards, over the past two seasons. Earnhardt Jr. said his health was good, and that he was “good” with his decision to step away from full-time competition. Budweiser, Pepsico/Mountain Dew, Axalta, Nationwide and Chevrolet were also mentioned as vital partners in his journey.

Most of all, he gave a shout out to JR Nation, the massive fan base that lives and dies with him each weekend on the track and follows a fair bit of his personal life through social media and personal contact.

“The fan support I received straight out of the gate was in large part because of my famous last name, but throughout the ups and downs it occurred to me that the fans that stuck it out and the new ones that joined us were there because of the person I was, not who they wanted me to be,” he said. “By the end of my career, thanks in large part to social media, I really gained a new appreciation for their dedication and enthusiasm when we succeed and their encouragement when we fall short of our goals.”