Earnhardt ready to race at Darlington
By
Terrin Waack NASCAR.com August 30, 2019 at 12:23 PM
DARLINGTON, S.C. – Driving a race car isn’t like riding a bike. Wobbles would lead to crashes. Speeds could never reach triple digits.
But, after a year-long hiatus, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is getting back behind the wheel.
The former full-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series driver who retired at the end of the 2017 season is as ready as can be to race in Saturday’s Xfinity Series event at Darlington Raceway (4 p.m. ET on NBC/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). It’ll mark just his second time back on track since retiring from full-time Cup competition, and he’s feeling the pressure. Unsurprisingly so.
“I was never not nervous about driving race cars,” Earnhardt said Friday. “I’ve raced all my life, but every race you were equally nervous as the last leading into qualifying or practice. It helped to get nervous. It’s a very wild experience being in there.”
RELATED: All of Earnhardt’s Cup wins Earnhardt’s best No. 8 paint schemes
Earnhardt last raced in 2018 at Richmond Raceway, where he qualified second, led 96 laps and finished fourth. He was in the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet at the time. This weekend he’ll be steering the No. 8 for the same organization that he co-owns and the same manufacturer.
The single-digit number should bring back memories – it’s called NASCAR Throwback Weekend for a reason, right? Earnhardt commanded the No. 8 to 17 Cup wins from 2000-07, sporting the red Budweiser paint scheme.
“What surprised me was I hadn’t raced here since ’99 in an Xfinity car,” Earnhardt said. “I ran a bunch of Cup races here, but these are so different than the Cup cars.
“When Joey Logano ran at Chicago, he said many times during the week he just wasn’t really comfortable until about halfway through the race, when it started to click, because the difference between how the Cup cars and the Xfinity cars drive even this year is very extreme. So, I think it’s going to be halfway through the race before I have any real kind of understanding of what I need to be doing, where I need to be running.”
RELATED:
In the Cup Series, Earnhardt averaged a 14.4 finish at Darlington in 22 starts. His best showing was a second-place run in 2014, and he had four top-five and 10 top-10 performances overall.
Earnhardt was right about his Xfinity Series past – 1999 was his last time at Darlington for that circuit. He did two races that year, finishing 11th and 12th. In his two other starts, both in 1998, he was second and 10th.
“I did come over here a couple month ago and ran about 15 laps when Noah (Gragson) was testing,” Earnhardt said. “That didn’t do anything to help my anxiety. Noah was faster than me, and it just reminded me how hard it is to drive these cars, how good these guys that drive them are and how hot and miserable it is inside there – some of the things you kind of forget about while in the booth and being a broadcaster.”
RELATED: Throwback paint schemes
Right, because TV is Earnhardt’s new reality. He works as an analyst for NBC Sports – normally.
Two weeks ago, at Bristol Motor Speedway, Earnhardt was absent from his on-camera gig after he and his family were involved in a
private plane crash on their way to the Tennessee track. Everyone is fine and returning to their everyday life, including wife Amy and daughter Isla attending Earnhardt’s race Saturday.
The Sport Clips Haircuts VFW 200 will go green at 4 p.m. ET. Nerves will run through Earnhardt until then.
“I picked a real hard track to go to,” Earnhardt said. “I don’t know what the hell I was thinking picking this place. It’s the throwback weekend. It’s hard not to want to be a part of it.”