In a press release earlier today, Rick Hendrick, owner of Hedrick Motorsports, announced that Dale Earnhardt Jr will retire after the 2017 NASCAR season is over.
The news doesn’t come as a surprise. Dale Jr, an 18 year veteran in NASCARs top series, has been battling concussions over the span of five years. While at a testing session as Kansas Speedway in 2012, Earnhardt Jr. blew a tire which sent his car hard into the wall. That accident caused a concussion that resulted in Junior missing a few races. Fast Forward four years later, and Earnhardt Jr. found himself in familiar territory. In a wreck that happened at Michigan International Speedway, Junior was diagnosed with a concussion that forced him to miss 18 races.
The 42 year-old NASCSR veteran knows how important health is, both physically and mentally. Junior has said many times that the concussion he sustained last season was a difficult thing he had to go through
Life After NASCAR.
Now recently married in December of last year to his girlfriend of seven years, Amy Reimann, Junior is looking at life after NASCAR. The 14-time Most Popular Driver award winner has said he wants to start a family. Being away from NASCAR will give him that time to start.
Juniors Career
In his career, Dale Jr. has 26 career Monster Energy NASCAR wins. Highly touted as one of the best Restrictor Plate drivers, 10 of his 26 wins have come at Super Speedways. In back to back seasons in the late 90s, Junior won the Xfinity Championship. He totaled 13 wins in that two year span.
