Dale Earnhardt Jr. named to NASCAR's 75 Greatest Drivers
Dale Earnhardt Jr. has excelled whether it’s on or off the track, and on Thursday he was named to NASCAR’s 75 Greatest Drivers — joining his dad, who was part of the original 50 on the list.
Delivering the news was NBC’s Steve Letarte, Earnhardt’s crew chief at Hendrick Motorsports from 2011-14 when Junior scored five of his 26 wins in the Cup Series.
RELATED: More NASCAR 75 coverage | List of drivers named so far
Like his dad, Earnhardt Jr. had a knack for restrictor-plate racing, compiling two victories in the Daytona 500 (2004, 2014) and six wins at Talladega Superspeedway. Earnhardt Jr. also won twice in the Daytona summer race, including an emotional victory in 2001 in the first race at Daytona after his dad’s death there earlier that year.
Among Junior’s other big wins were a Bristol Night Race victory in 2004 and a Martinsville clock in the fall of 2014. In addition to his Cup success, he also won back-to-back championships in the Xfinity Series in 1998 and 99 while driving for Dale Earnhardt, Inc. He had 13 wins over those two seasons, giving him the bulk of the 24 Xfinity wins that are on his record.
Earnhardt’s popularity with the fans is, of course, well known, and he won the NMPA’s Most Popular Driver Award 15 times from 2003-17, a number bested only by Bill Elliott’s 16.
Earnhardt’s down-to-earth personality and his love for the history of the sport have served him well in his career as a broadcaster after he retired from racing. Fans can hear him as part of the booth team for NBC Sports during their live broadcasts of the races or on the airwaves through his Dale Jr. Download podcast on Dirty Mo Media.
Earnhardt also has a strong connection to the iRacing gaming community. He led an effort to clean up North Wilkesboro Speedway and map it for iRacing as a way to preserve the track. Three years later, NASCAR and Speedway Motorsports are getting ready to revive North Wilkesboro with this year’s All-Star Race on May 21 (8 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM).
MORE: Dale Jr. through the years | Most Popular Driver Award winners
