Dale Earnhardt Jr. truly had one of the most spectacular and dynamic careers in the history of NASCAR. From being shot up to stardom as Dale Earnhardt’s son, to the tragedy that struck him and the whole sport in 2001, to redeeming himself with that win at Daytona, to his consecutive most popular driver awards, to his premature retirement, Junior saw it all, the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. But his career can be divided into two phases, him at DEI, and him at Hendrick Motorsports.
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Because despite his bitter exit from DEI to HMS in 2008, it was at the former team where he won more races. Earnhardt Jr. won 17 times in the#8 car, but in the #88 car, he won a mere 9 times.
However, the second half of his career could’ve been very different if not for one decision that he recently opened up on.
Junior can’t help but wonder what could’ve been if he hadn’t signed for HMS
In an interview with Jeff Gluck of The Athletic, Earnhardt Jr. was asked about the thing in his professional career which came really close to happening but didn’t actually happen in the end. Junior prefaced his answer by claiming he doesn’t regret it, but that thing is him going to Joe Gibbs Racing.
“When I was looking at what I was going to do after (Dale Earnhardt Inc.), I literally was only looking at Gibbs and Hendrick (Motorsports). I’d went and met with Gibbs, we had a great meeting, and they offered me a contract to sign. And then I went to meet with Rick and he offered me a contract to sign,” he described.
Junior emphasized once again that he has “no regrets over” how that played out, but he still sometimes wonders, “What would it have been like had I went the other route?”
Dale Earnhardt Jr. on the biggest regret of his career
Towards the end of his driving career in 2017, Earnhardt Jr. opened up on the biggest of his career, which was him parting ways with Tony Eury Jr. “I regret that,” he confessed as per Sporting News.
“That’s probably my biggest [regret] in motorsports as a driver, was that decision because it did nothing and it made our relationship a challenge to repair. Like I say, we’d won a lot of races together and he had been a big reason why I even got in the XFINITY car, to begin with.”
Earnhardt called his uncle and his former crew chief, the biggest supporter, as he claimed he got confused for a while, thinking that he knew better than anyone else about what was best for him and his career.
