Dale Earnhardt Jr. reunited with his long-lost legacy in stock car racing this weekend. After a lengthy dispute with his stepmother, Teresa Earnhardt, the rights to Dale Jr.’s iconic #8 Budweiser livery finally fell into his hands, and he used it to race in the 2024 South Carolina 400 at Florence Motor Speedway.
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With fans thronging by the thousands to watch the spectacular event, everyone went home happy, with Junior slightly more than the rest.
After a poor qualifying effort, he ran as high as second place during the race but had to retire his car due to a fuel pump issue. What provided great comfort to the Xfinity team owner despite the outcome is the way he was able to race valiantly despite the initial setback.
He opened up on The Dale Jr. Download and said that he’d prayed to god to just make him happy at the end of the race. His prayer had been answered long before the end.
He said, “I don’t go to church a lot. But I’ve always believed in god.” His belief led him to place his request before the almighty despite the awareness that it might be in vain. He continued, “Rarely do I put a request in a prayer because sometimes you feel like that’s asking too much, right?”
.@DaleJr asked The Big Man Upstairs for a special request before his race – and He answered. pic.twitter.com/AqN2kMZEXK
— Dirty Mo Media (@DirtyMoMedia) November 25, 2024
“But I’m sitting there going, ‘Holy Cow!’. I’m sitting there just thinking, ‘Get me happy at the end of the day.’ But here we are. We are not even done and I am like, ‘You did it! I don’t care what happens from this moment on.’” The answer from the skies allowed him to push the infamous #8 car to the front of the field before relegating it to a 28th-place finish.
Summing up Dale Jr.’s race at Florence Motor Speedway
Junior began the evening with a disappointing qualifying effort. He finished 53rd out of the 56 cars that were trying to qualify for the event. However, he used up one of the four available provisionals to skip the heat races and participate directly in the main event. He started 37th and slowly began picking off the cars in front of him.
By the 40th lap, he entered the top 25 and continued cruising forward until he took second place by overtaking Josh Berry. He held this position behind the race leader for a long time before he had to bring his car in due to a mechanical error.
The JR Motorsports team popped the hood for a diagnosis and identified a faulty fuel pump as the culprit. Junior could not return to the race then and Treyten Lapcevich ended up as the winner. Despite the setback, it was a worthy return for the iconic Budweiser car.
