A few years back, Dale Earnhardt Junior signed an endorsement contract to sell jeans.
He told us they were a relaxed fit, tough yet comfortable. He told us they were real, devoid of any pretense. The parallel between a pair of pants and a race car driver, this race car driver, was unmistakable, and the advertising agent who thought of it remains a genius to this day.
Because Junior remains perhaps the most genuine, the most comfortable-in-his-own-skin professional athlete of all time. His announcement Tuesday that he’s retiring after the current NASCAR season due to concussions is a big setback to a sport with declining ticket sales, not to mention the recent departure of some of its other biggest stars.
Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon and Carl Edwards have all called it quits recently. Stewart and Gordon won seven Cup Series championships between them, and Edwards finished second twice.
None, though, have the mainstream recognition and star power of Junior, whose name and persona have attracted sponsors and fans to the sport in a big way since he joined the Cup Series full-time in 2000.
Junior, who’s 42, said during an afternoon press conference in Charlotte, broadcast live on ESPN, that he wanted to leave on his own terms. He addressed last season, when he suffered a concussion, probably in a crash in Brooklyn, Mich., and competed just three more times before parking his car for the final 18 races of 2016.
He spoke slowly and from a prepared script. He never skipped a beat, and he never really seemed in need of something written in front of him. As usual, Junior was smooth, genuine, human.
“During my rehab,” Junior said, “I was given something else I wasn’t accustomed to, and that was time, time to understand what is important to me, the opportunity to stand here at this podium to announce my choice rather than some fate that was decided for me.”
For Junior, fate created a path lined with spotlights and pressure, a path that led to success mixed with disappointment.
Some say Junior never reached the expectations created by his late father, Dale Earnhardt Sr., who won seven titles before a crash killed him on the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500. To me, that marked the most dramatic moment in racing history, and, in fact, it’s one of the most shocking incidents in sports history.
It added an element of drama and spice to the already theatrical presence that Junior had brought to speedways across the country.
By then, he’d won back-to-back NASCAR Busch Series titles, in 1998 and ’99, no small feat in the sport’s highly competitive second-tier racing level. With that behind him, plus his last name, the best equipment money could buy and the legend of his father shadowing him, big things were expected from Junior
Championship things.
It didn’t take long before Junior became a rock star, unable to move around in public without drawing serious attention. The demands on his time were great, pulling him apart like a wishbone.
He won zero titles, a fact not lost on those who believe his fame is built more on his last name than his driving skills. Did Junior receive some financial backing he might not have gotten if not for who he was? Probably. But Junior’s career resume remains great. He won the Daytona 500, the tour’s most prestigious race, twice. He’s won 26 Cup races overall.
More than that, though, Earnhardt Jr. somehow never grew defensive or impatient, despite endless questions about his father, who could ignite a spark plug with a hard stare and was a man of few words.
Junior? Nothing was off limits. Not his father, not his failure to win a Cup championship, nothing.
“He is a true ambassador of this sport and true gentleman,” Dave McGrath, the general manager at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, told me by phone. “He’s talented and so humble, a superstar, and he operates on the day-to-day as an everyday Joe, which is kind of refreshing in today’s sports world. It will create a void for sure.”
Former Concord resident and ex-racer Ricky Craven, who’s made a smooth transition from racing to color commentary, followed Junior’s press conference and noted, “My thoughts right now are that he was the guardian of the sport, that he was the most recognizable name in our industry. He is the voice of the garage area, even though he may not always want to be.
“Drivers and colleagues look up to him,” Craven continued, “and he’s always gone about his business the right way. He’s been in the shadow of a legend, his dad, yet he soldiered on.”
Craven, as much as anyone, can relate to what Junior is going through. Craven suffered from post-concussion syndrome in 1998, causing him to become disoriented, both while racing and flying.
“I didn’t think he’d be back in 2017,” Craven said of Junior
But he is. He’ll make his final appearances at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on July 16 and Sept. 24. He’s been named the tour’s Most Popular Driver 14 straight seasons, and he’ll undoubtedly win it again after this season.
His last.
“The fan support I received straight out of the gate was in large part (due) to my famous last name,” Junior said at his press conference. “But throughout the ups and downs, it occurred to me that the fans that stuck it out and the new ones that joined us, they were there because of the person I was, and not who they wanted me to be.”
(Ray Duckler can be reached at 369-3304, rduckler@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @rayduckler.)