Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s NASCAR Cup Series career spanned three decades, encompassing 603 starts that saw him with a total of 26 wins. During that run, he was the central figure in some of NASCAR’s best moments and also one of its most tragic.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s most memorable NASCAR races
A look back the races and moments that defined Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Cup Series career.
Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images
Although this collection is surely incomplete, with Tuesday’s announcement that Earnhardt is retiring from full-time NASCAR competition at the end of the current season, here’s a look at some of the unforgettable moments and races of his career:
2000: After successive Xfinity Series championships, Earnhardt made the jump to NASCAR’s top division in 2000. It wouldn’t be long before he soon tasted success, winning his first Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway in his 12th start. A second victory followed four races later at Richmond International Raceway.
2000: Earnhardt’s first two wins were obviously special, but his triumph in the 2000 All-Star Race carried added significance. Not only was he the first rookie to win the non-points event, he did so with a thrilling late charge that saw him take the lead from defending Cup champion Dale Jarrett with two laps remaining. In Victory Lane as he celebrated, Earnhardt and his iconic father, Dale Earnhardt Sr., shared a poignant moment.
2001: Less than five months after his father was killed during a last-lap crash in the season-opening Daytona 500, Earnhardt storms to the win in the first race at Daytona International Speedway since the accident.
2004: The Earnhardt name is forever synonymous with Daytona, and Earnhardt Jr. added to that legacy when he won NASCAR’s biggest race in 2004. That it fell six years to the day that his father won his only Daytona 500 was not lost on the younger Earnhardt.
2004: Earnhardt is one of NASCAR’s superior restrictor-plate racers, an ability he showcased when he won at Talladega Superspeedway. In Victory Lane, an excited Earnhardt dropped an expletive while being interviewed on national television. That slipup resulted in NASCAR penalizing him 25 points, which dropped him from first in the Cup Series standings with seven races remaining in the season.
2014: Earnhardt added a second Daytona 500 win in 2014.
2015: Earnhardt’s most recent Cup victory came Nov. 15, 2015, at Phoenix International Raceway.
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