“I’m Not Comfortable, I Wanna Leave”: Dale Earnhardt Jr. Recounts Emotional Return to Daytona After Tragic Death of Father on Same Track Just Months Ago

Back in 2001, the Daytona 500 was the scene of one of the most tragic moments in American sports history as Dale Earnhardt lost his life after an incident on the penultimate lap of the race. The tragedy shook NASCAR to its core and impacted not just those associated with the sport but also outside it.  Just five months after the incident, when NASCAR returned to the track, Earnhardt’s son, Dale Jr., was still overwhelmed by the tragedy that had transpired there.

Despite the emotions, Junior decided to come down to the track a week prior to the race. In a recent NASCAR video, Junior shared some interesting stories as well as mentioned how he took a moment to contemplate his future in NASCAR once he was out on the track.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. talks about his return to Daytona after the passing of his father

As the video progressed, Junior mentioned, “I didn’t wanna walk in Friday for practice. I’m here for the first time. I’m not comfortable… I wanna leave, I don’t wanna be here. So I had to find that out right?”

Thereafter the commentator voice mentioned that a couple of weeks earlier, Junior said that he had not been dreading the trip to Daytona. In fact, he had been looking forward to it and decided to come in early.

“So me and my friends drove down a week before the race. We drive out track we pull in. The track gate was open we drive right across onto the front straightaway. Ain’t seen a guard yet.”

“Pull up to the start-finish line and get out and my buddies are taking pictures of themselves at the start-finish line. We drive around in the back straightaway and finally here comes the security storming up and slams on brakes in front of us and wedges us into the wall.” 

He later mentioned that the security angrily walked towards his car, but when he saw Junior, he just asked what they had been doing on the track. After Junior explained that he wanted to visit turn four and have a minute, the security member left them alone.

Junior shares his thoughts while sitting on the race track all by himself 

Junior was not aware of the exact spot where his father’s car had hit the wall, but he was there at the general location.

“I’m off on my own, I just sit there for a minute, just to see how it felt. I think at the moment I thought, I’m gonna keep racing I’m gonna have to keep coming back here. I gotta be okay with this.”

The NASCAR Hall of Famer said that he could not hate the race track for the incident, since that track did nothing wrong in his father’s death coupled with the fact that his father loved that place.

He wouldn’t hate the race track right? I gotta stay in love with Daytona. I wanna win here and I wanna love coming here.”

He concluded that it was an agreement he made with himself during that moment to keep coming back and continue to race in the sport.