Longtime NASCAR fan favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. says he will retire from the sport after the 2017 season. Earnhardt has 26 career Cup victories, has won NASCAR’s most popular driver award 14 times, but has never won the Cup title.
Earnhardt, now 42 raced at the Milwaukee Mile several times during his 16 year NACAR career, winning a Busch series race in July of 1998. Earnhardt said “I typically don’t have a lot of fun on flat tracks, but it’s a lot of fun, the win here, I remember that race, I don’t know where Matt finished.”
He was back at the West Allis track in 2002 and 2008 to test race cars. On one of his visits he was introduced to Brett Favre. “The guy who was showing us around, it was like hey you want to meet Brett, I’m like sure, he’s behind this door, it was like there was this glow coming out from around the seam of the door.”
"He'll be missed," said Leonard Reimer, a big racing fan.
"When senior passed he picked up the torch," said Todd Thelen, the owner of Slinger Speedway.
Earnhardt Jr. is the son of the Dale Earnhardt, a popular driver who tragically died on the track during the 2000 Daytona 500.
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