This Weekend Will be the Last Time an Earnhardt Races at Daytona if Dale Jr. Gets His Way

If you’ve tuned into a NASCAR race at any point in the last couple of decades, or even if you haven’t, you probably know all about the Earnhardt family as they’ve beome one of the biggest household names ever. They are, of course, one of the biggest proponents of pushing the sport of NASCAR to the level that it has reached today with Dale Earnhardt Sr. both living for the sport and being tragically taken away by it. However, without his contribution to it, NASCAR would probably be nowhere where it is today or anywhere near its peak.

Now, Daytona is the sport’s biggest track and this weekend, the guys head back to the track yet again this year to race in the Coke Zero 400. Why is this more than just another race? Well, as the storylines have unfolded this year, we’ve all found out, at this point, that Dale Earnhardt Jr. would be making his final stand in 2017, rounding out the season before calling it quits. As it relates to the race upcoming this weekend, it could round out an era as perhaps the biggest name in racing takes its final lap at the sport’s grandest stage.

Now, you might be wondering why Dale Jr. doesn’t want to see any more racing out of his future kids or his family. In Junior’s podcast known as the “Dale Jr. Download,” he said that he’s not ready to push racing on them at all, stating that he would rather not have them be racecar drivers unless they decide that they want to be of their own accord. To justify it, Junior says that “There’s a lot of good and bad about racing, you know, and I think that it’s hard on your psyche and your self. So I would be super proud if they went to college and got an awesome degree…” He does continue on, though, that if they pick racing on their own, he’ll definitely be there to support them in that journey.

Now, Dale Jr most certainly isn’t the last of the Earnhardt lineage and whether or not a descendant of the Earnhardt family will ever see the racing surface at Daytona again is up for question but one thing is for certain – there are certainly going to be a ton of people rooting for Junior this weekend at the Coke Zero 400. I guess that the rest will be left up for time to tell!