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FONTANA, Calif. — Dale Earnhardt Jr. will make his 600th career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series start Sunday at Auto Club Speedway. And for all the glory, trophies and adoration, his two-time Daytona 500 winning career hasn’t necessarily been as NASCAR’s most popular driver imagined it to be.
Earnhardt’s initial motives were simpler and his goals modest. But he’s enjoying the long ride and the achievement and respect he’s accumulated in 18 full-time seasons on NASCAR’s main stage.
“I just wanted to drive,” Earnhardt said of the milestone. “I wanted to race cars for a living. I wanted to do it well enough to be able to afford to make a living doing it.
“I didn’t have vision or assume that I was going to make all of the money and success that we have made, but all I really wanted to do was to do it long enough so I didn’t have to get a real job. I mean that as sincere as I can. I’m real thrilled that I’ve had the opportunity to stay around and drive for some really great teams. Some really awesome owners. Worked with a lot of amazing crew chiefs and crew members.”
Earnhardt, who missed the second half of the 2016 season recovering from concussion symptoms, returned to competition this year more grateful for the opportunity and with perhaps a different perspective.
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He acknowledged Friday in California that he has had preliminary talks with team owner Rick Hendrick about extending his contract with the championship organization. Earnhardt has maintained that he wanted to see how he felt behind the wheel again before committing to a contract process.
“We have had some discussions about planning to get together,” Earnhardt said. “It’s not something I put on the shelf for sure. We are getting closer and closer.
“I have done some things that I really think have (given) me a lot of confidence in the car and in my ability to continue to race and so … yeah, I’m not in any hurry to sit down and have those discussions, but we have been chit-chatting a little bit about what we need to go ahead and start heading in that direction.”
As for the weekend’s important milestone, only Matt Kenseth has more (618) starts among active drivers. And despite the large number, Earnhardt concedes there are typically a few he hears about most — and he gets it.
“They talk about wins,” Earnhardt said of his fans. ” ‘I was at Daytona when you won in ’04, I was at Daytona when you won in ’14, I was at the All-Star race when you won or I’ve watched every race you’ve ran.’ You know you hear … really, they remember the moments on the track more than anything. And I do the same thing.
“I think back about the wins and maybe not even the wins, some races are really fun and satisfactory, but you are the only one that will remember them because you ran third or fifth or something like that and they are kind of obscure in most people’s minds.
“I think about winning the All-Star race as a rookie, just how fortunate we were to do that. Winning the Daytona 500 twice. I didn’t know that I would even win it once and everything that has happened. The list goes on and on.”
Despite the success — the Daytona 500 wins, the dramatic Daytona summer race win in 2001 following his father’s death in that year’s Daytona 500, the All-Star race win, the streak of four consecutive Talladega trophies — Earnhardt humbly and vividly remembers the first of his 599 starts.
“My first Cup race? I was really nervous,” Earnhardt said. “I remember sitting on the starting grid or sitting in qualifying for the race and telling (then crew chief) Tony (Eury) Jr. that I would switch with him for a million dollars so he could do this instead of me because I was scared to death.
“Just they had made such a big deal about that whole thing.”
And to think, that was only the beginning of the making of a superstar, the most popular driver — a talent that earned his place in the record books. And in hearts.