Dale Earnhardt Jr. is back at the top of the popularity meter once again following his return to the broadcast booth with Amazon Prime Video in the NASCAR Cup Series. This makes it a good moment to look back at the former driver’s illustrious racing career and relive the victories that made him who he is today.
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Junior’s NASCAR career began in 1996 with Dale Earnhardt Incorporated. He drove the No. 31 Chevrolet for his father’s race team on a part-time basis but failed to win a race that year or in the one that followed. His maiden victory came in 1998 at the Texas Motor Speedway. He followed that up with six more wins and won the Xfinity Series title.
In 1999, he repeated the dominance and won six races to secure his second consecutive Xfinity Series title. These 13 Victory Lane visits guaranteed him a full-time seat in the Cup Series. He stepped up in 2000 and secured his maiden Cup Series win at the Texas Motor Speedway, once again. It was just his 12th start in the premier tier, and he led 106 laps.
His second win came soon after at the Richmond Speedway. His third victory is notable for the reason that it came at the Daytona International Speedway less than five months after his father passed away at the track. He secured two more victories that year. Junior brought in two wins each in 2002 and 2003.
2004 presented a breakthrough. He won six races that season and finished fifth in the points table. It’s the most number of races that he has won in a single season. He then won a race in 2005, 2006, and 2008, each. The scarcity of wins did not reduce or impact his popularity among the fanbase. That remains a curious case of how.
His next win came years later, in 2012, at Michigan. He was back in the Victory Lane for the first time in 143 races and four years. He followed this up with three wins in 2014 and three more in 2015. And that brings his tally to 26 Victory Lane visits in the Cup Series. In the meantime, he secured 11 more wins in the Xfinity Series and rounded off his tally at 24 wins.
So, Junior stands tall as one of NASCAR’s finest in history with 50 combined wins in the Cup Series and the Xfinity Series. His voice will next be heard from the Nashville Superspeedway this weekend alongside Adam Alexander and Steve Letarte.
