Earnhardt, Dale, Jr. (1974-…), was a popular and successful American automobile racing driver. Earnhardt competed in the Sprint (later Monster Energy, now NASCAR) Cup Series supervised by NASCAR, the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing. Earnhardt’s major NASCAR driving achievements were his two victories in the Daytona 500, in 2004 and 2014. Earnhardt was voted NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver 15 consecutive times, from 2003 through 2017.
Earnhardt comes from an automobile racing family. He is the son of Dale Earnhardt, Sr., a NASCAR Hall of Fame driver. The younger Earnhardt is frequently called “Junior.” He also is the grandson of both NASCAR driver Ralph Earnhardt and stock car builder Robert Gee. Dale Earnhardt, Jr., drove Chevrolet car number 88 for the Hendrick Motorsports team in Sprint and Monster Energy NASCAR Cup races and sometimes for his own team, JR Motorsports, in the NASCAR Nationwide (now Xfinity) Series of races.
Ralph Dale Earnhardt, Jr., was born on Oct. 10, 1974, in Kannapolis, North Carolina. He began racing stock cars in his late teens. Earnhardt began competing in NASCAR races in 1996 and joined his father’s team full-time in 1998, racing in the Busch (later Nationwide, now Xfinity) Series. He won the series championship in 1998 and 1999. Earnhardt joined the Winston (now NASCAR) Cup Series in 1998. By 2000, he was competing full-time in the Winston Cup Series. Earnhardt won the Daytona 500 in 2004, three years after his father was killed in the 2001 race. Earnhardt retired after the 2017 NASCAR racing season. He described his final year of racing before retirement in Racing to the Finish (2018). Earnhardt was elected to the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2020.
