Dale Earnhardt Jr. joins Dale Sr. in NASCAR Hall of Fame
Dale Earnhardt Jr. will join his famous father in the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
As explained by ESPN, the man affectionately known as Dale Jr. who twice won the Daytona 500 and who was the champion of what was known as the Busch Series in 1998 and 1999 received 76 percent of Modern Era votes to get into the Hall.
Voting was a virtual process because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Earnhardt spoke with NASCAR on NBC shortly after learning of his future enshrinement:
“I’ll be honest with you, I wasn’t really nervous. I had a root canal earlier today, so maybe I was more nervous about that. So, that was kind of distracting my thoughts.
“I also was understanding the fact that I’m young, considering most people that are inducted into the Hall of Fame, and I had a lot of years that I could be patiently waiting to hopefully see my name called. So, I was going to be okay. But once you all started the show, man, nerves set in and I got really shook up and I was extremely emotional to be nominated."
Former driver Dale Jarrett also talked with Dale Jr. about Dale Earnhardt Sr., who won seven NASCAR Winston Cup championships over his legendary career but who died after a final-lap accident at the 2001 Daytona 500.
Earnhardt Jr. was never as successful as his father, but he did earn 26 Cup Series wins before he retired as a full-time competitor after the 2017 season. Per Jerry Bonkowski of NBC Sports, Dale Jr. was voted Most Popular Driver every year from 2003-17.
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