MOORESVILLE, N.C. (Nov. 17, 2017) – On Sunday, an era in NASCAR history will come to an end.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., after 631 starts, 26 victories (so far) and 18 years of glory, pain, triumph and loss, will hang up his helmet, climb out of the No. 88 Axalta Chevrolet and walk away from the driver’s seat to pursue his dreams at a slightly less hectic pace.

From the day he announced he would be vacating the seat and stepping away as a full-time driver last April, many of us forgot that it would actually happen. Surely, the man who captured the world’s attention as a teenager and kept it going through the years with the help of JR Nation, his legion-sized fan base, would somehow laugh and say, “just kidding,” right?

Nope.

The 43-year-old driver, and son of NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt, will step out of the car and turn to other things in his life. His wife, Amy, is expecting a baby girl sometime in May, and that will cause a man to think about things. His battle with concussions took its toll on him, and so did the realization that there were so many things he had not done yet.

It’s not like he’s going back to his property in Mooresville, closing the gate and taking up hermit status. He still has a race team (JR Motorsports) to run, TV shows to film and a job in the TV booth on Sundays in the second half of the NASCAR Cup Series season.

He’ll still be the same old Dale Jr., hero to many, he just won’t be driving as much anymore.

What will it be like, come Daytona 2018, when he’s not a threat to win the Daytona 500 again? We’ll find out.

For him, it’s going to be a wild ride this weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway. A chapter in his life will come to an end, and despite the thrill of doing something new and different without being chained to the 36-race NASCAR season, it will be a bit...heavy.

“Yeah, I feel like I almost need to apologize because I’ve got a pregnant wife, I’m retiring and I just feel like I’m going to break down any minute,” he said last week at Phoenix. “I feel like every answer that I have has some sort of sad undertones and very emotional temperament, but I… yeah, it’s starting to really sink in.”

“I hadn’t felt much. I went through Talladega...that was an emotional weekend regardless of how many races were left in the year.  But, now, I think after Texas, I don’t know, I went hunting for a couple of days, so I didn’t really have to think about it too much, but got here and I’m like, ‘man, it’s just a week away.’ I am not sure that I’m like just ready to be going through all of that emotion that I will have in Homestead, but it’s coming.”

Indeed it is, and the emotions he’ll be feeling on Sunday will be matched by those in JR Nation. Many of his fans are Earnhardt fans of long standing, having followed on from father to son. They’ll be a bit misty, you can be sure.

“It’s going to be a bittersweet weekend,” was how Kelley Earnhardt Miller, Dale’s sister and perhaps the biggest constant in his life, put it. “Sunday is probably going to be a little bit different story, just because of the finality of what we’ve all known for so long.”

Is she going to shed a tear or 12 when it finally ends?

“I told him (Dale), ‘I’m just going to go ahead and tell you, I’m going to cry,’” she said. “It’s going to be happy tears, because he’s moving on. He’s been able to make this decision on his own and he’s moving on to the TV booth...it opens up so much opportunity for him to do so many more things in life professionally, and personally, what he’s got going on with Amy and having a baby. There’s so much excitement in all of that.

“It’s going to be sad because it’s something we’re not used to, I’m not used to not having my brother out there, and before that having our dad out there,” she said. “It’s what this family has known. It’s going to be a little weird, and I’m sure it’s going to be very emotional on Sunday. I think that emotion will carry over to Daytona, when he’s not there to be a race car driver.”

For himself, Earnhardt Jr. wonders if he can stand the tide of emotions that are sure to be with him in the cockpit.

“I hope that I can handle it well, but it’s definitely going to be interesting to see how that feels,” he said. “Amy being pregnant, bless her heart, she is tearing up at the drop of a hat.  All these videos and all these things that our partners are creating, this content has just been incredible.  It makes you feel so good in your heart. The comments from fans...it is more than you can process and I’m sure that Homestead is just going to be like the cork coming out of the bottle. 

“I’m lucky that Amy is going to be there, I’m lucky my family will be there and my team. I will have so much support and I want to support them.  It’s going to be emotional for them and our fans.  I don’t know really how to describe it, but I hope that you guys don’t mind it being a little bit heavy.”

Heavy? Well...sure, it will be heavy. This is major-league for the sport, for the fans and for the family. In all that the Earnhardt family has done for the past 50 years, NASCAR’s always been a part of it. Driving, promoting, running a team...they’ve done it all. That’s going to be a change, to say the least.

“It’s going to be different,” Kelley said. “It brings up so many emotions. It gets you thinking about our dad and how everything started...how would things be different? It’s going to be a crazy, emotional time.”

Heavy or not, emotion will be the story of the day for Earnhardt Jr. and JR Nation. He has about 15 friends that he wanted to be at the final weekend of his full-time driving career. His at-track family, crew chief Greg Ives, the rest of his No. 88 team...Rick Hendrick...all will be there to send him off.

Despite the enormity of the weekend, Earnhardt Jr. said there wasn’t a whole lot on his schedule.

“There’s not a lot going on for me personally,” he said. “We’re working on our DIY show a little, then we’ll go up to Homestead. I’m not really doing anything out of the ordinary. Haven’t had a chance to look at my schedule. I’m going to try to get Tyler (road manager Tyler Overstreet) to do a really good job of recording this for social media, for myself and everyone else.”

Be sure and tune in to Earnhardt Jr.’s Instagram account on the weekend...it will be chock full of all that he’s doing—interviews with Bob Costas and Michael Strahan are on that list.

When the engine sounds fade away and he pulls into the garage for the final time as a full-time driver, what then? How will the emotions play out when it’s well and truly over? Those are questions that will only be answered in the gloom of the South Florida night.

For those who follow Earnhardt Jr. on the track and off, it will be different. It won’t be evident until Daytona—or perhaps after the Evening with Dale Jr. event in Las Vegas during banquet week (tickets are still available for that at NASCAR.com)—but it will have changed. We won’t know for sure until Daytona rolls around again.

One thing we do know right this minute is, Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s impact on NASCAR has been transformative and deep. It will be some time before his absence as an every-week driver can be evaluated. In the meantime, we’ve got memories, moments and treasured events to keep us company.