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BRISTOL, Tenn. — For Dale Earnhardt Jr., coming to Bristol Motor Speedway makes the 41-year-old feel like a kid again.
As the son of “The Intimidator,” it comes as no surprise that Earnhardt Jr. grew up around race tracks. While most children might have spent their adolescence frolicking with friends through suburban streets, Dale Jr. spent his atop a van, watching cars circle the track — and “The Last Great Colosseum” was one of his favorite places to do that.
“As a kid I loved coming here because we would just run from one end of the track to the other getting into whatever we could get into,” Earnhardt Jr. told the media on Friday at Bristol. “They used to park the comfort coach conversion vans in the corners. All the drivers would park theirs in the corners and we would just climb up on the back of them and watch practice.
“You were literally 30 feet from the cars when they were going by. In the race they would crash and roll down the banking feet from the bus. It was just the coolest thing as a kid to be able to be that close to the action and see the drivers in there working and turning the wheel and watch the cars literally work as they go through the corner and how the cars were handling. It was so much fun having that kind of vantage point.”
Junior has been an advocate of the racing at Bristol Motor Speedway for some time now, occasionally claiming it to be the best race track for attendees to become captivated by NASCAR.
“I’m very proud of this event,” Junior said. “I tell people all the time to come get tickets and watch this race and this is where you need to go if you want to get hooked.”
In 32 starts, Junior has seen Victory Lane once at Bristol, which came during 2004’s night race and was one of six wins (a career high) that year for him.
For Sunday’s Food City 500 (1 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), Earnhardt Jr. will line up 20th in the field, on the same row as Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott (19th).
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