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Countless pieces of multi-colored confetti still stuck to Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s race car when it was rolled Monday morning into the visitor’s center at Daytona International Speedway, where tradition mandates it will sit on display for the next year. That routine bit of business was enough to bring the whole celebration flooding back once again, from the driver’s celebratory screams over the radio, to the owner’s ride on the window ledge, to the raucous festivities that followed in Victory Lane.
No doubt, this one was big. Earnhardt’s second Daytona 500 triumph, one decade after his first, so resonated with NASCAR’s most popular driver that he entered the media center whooping, and with arms held high. He can’t talk about it enough, as evidenced by his unabashed enthusiasm for a post-race promotional tour some have merely tolerated. Dale Earnhardt Jr. is a two-time winner of the Daytona 500, and he wants everyone to know it, which in and of itself should tell you something about what this means to the man at the center of it all.
And yet, this past Sunday night wasn’t the first time that Earnhardt has scored a landmark victory. For all the criticism the guy has taken in recent years for not winning enough — something he now has an opportunity to silence once and for all — he’s certainly had a knack for making those triumphs count. So with the scent of all that sprayed Victory Lane champagne still lingering in the air, there’s no better time to look back at the 10 biggest race victories of Earnhardt’s career — so far.